


The Legacy

by BeaterNightFury, Miraha



Series: One Sky, One Family [1]
Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Big Brother Lea, Family Fluff, Gen, KH plot with a spanner or two, Riku is way too stubborn, scenes behind the scenes, slight KH3 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2020-06-28 18:23:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 56,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19817950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeaterNightFury/pseuds/BeaterNightFury, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miraha/pseuds/Miraha
Summary: "Why do good people sometimes get used for bad reasons?"Ventus is sixteen years old, he has an amazing adoptive family, and a lot to learn about the worlds.Terra and Aqua have responsibilities and dreams, and maybe they need to act a little more the young people they are.Lea has a sister for whom he's the whole world, Isa has a dog, Zack has a girlfriend and a buddy to help.Sora is too happy for his own good, Riku is too stubborn for his own, and Kairi has something she should remember.Along with many more, they share one story, and one legacy.





	1. Patterns in the Big Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Legacy](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/498844) by BeaterNightFury. 



> The original story was posted in Italian on EFP, but I'm translating it as the author.
> 
> This story is actually the result of a massive co-writing among me and my friends from a cosplay group. We started it as an RPG on Whatsapp, but when our game eventually ended in 2018 I felt the story wasn't over.  
> I tried to put it on Word and even out the plot... and then KH3 came out and I decided to write everything again, from scratch, using the original characters we inserted like Shiro and River and some points of the RPG and original plot, and making our new story match the canon...  
> ... kinda. Because you'll see, my friends and I like happy endings.
> 
> Shiro as a character belongs to my friend Miraha, who's also co-writing and betaing this.

_“This is my family._

_I found it all on my own._

_It’s little and broken, but still good._

_Yeah, still good.”_

The deafening sound of shattered glass echoed in the hall, immediately followed by the wail of a small child.

«You’re in _trouble_ , Terra.» The teenager who had been strenuously dueling the culprit until that very moment shrugged and dismissed his weapon with a flick of his wrist.

His name was Ventus, and even if he didn’t look his age of sixteen, he was the youngest student in that castle – student, not person.

Normally Terra, his sparring partner four years his senior, would have responded to such an accusation by seizing him by the shoulders, lifting him up in the air, and scratched accurately his golden hair with a noogie, but in that very moment, the wail of the little one had left the older boy full of concern.

« _Shiro_ …» Terra hissed between his teeth, slapping his forehead with the hand he wasn’t holding the Keyblade with.

In a corner of the room, fenced by a playpen, a girl little older than one with blue eyes and unusually whitish hair was clutching the colored fence and crying, while she looked for the other people in the room with her gaze. Terra ran to her and picked the toddler up immediately.

«I’m so sorry, sunshine, Dad didn’t want to scare you…»

«Yeah, you just wanted to blast me into a wall.» Ventus chuckled joining his friend. «She would have started crying anyway, though, if you did it.»

Ventus just adored Shiro, along with his status of uncle in all but blood, but he hadn’t always been so agreeable towards her. Despite having turned sixteen the previous fall (he had a bad case of amnesia, and the other student in the castle, Aqua, had decided his birthday to fall on November 27, the day in which he had walked through the doors of that castle for the first time), he didn’t show his age neither physically, as he was rather short and thin and he still had the same childish face he had had when he had arrived there, nor mentally, and when he had discovered, almost two years before, that his classmates, his only two friends Terra and Aqua, had unwittingly had a baby, he had erroneously thought he would have been kicked out of the castle, or put aside, because of the newcomer in the Land of Departure.

He had needed several days of persuasion from Terra and Aqua, and a tiny, accidental help from baby Shiro, before Ventus understood that little or nothing would have really changed in his life.

Shiro turned her gaze on the boy and reached out to him with a tiny hand, squealing: «Unky!»

«No way, sunshine, that isn’t fair!» Terra pretended to be offended, swung Shiro upside-down towards the floor, then he raised her back up, tossed her in the air and caught her, then he squeezed her in a hug. The little one giggled.

«You know, Terra, you have no reason to be jealous.» Ventus smirked. «At the end of the day, it’s your shoulder she pukes on.»

Shiro stopped laughing and stared at a spot behind Terra and Ventus, then she smiled again and pointed at someone.

«Mama! Pawpaw!» she exclaimed happily.

Aqua took Shiro from Terra’s arms and checked if she was fine, then she stared at the window that Terra had smashed with a badly-aimed Strike Raid.

«What happened?» she asked the boys.

«Dada BOOM!» Shiro intervened before one of the two had time to explain.

Aqua was visibly trying to throw a dirty look at Terra and Ventus, but Shiro’s comment managed to get a smile out of her.

Ventus bit his lip. Shiro was hardly capable of saying about a dozen words and a sentence (“wuv ya!”), but she was perfectly capable of spilling the beans when she was asked to.

The boy could hardly imagine what Shiro would have been able to blather in the following two, maybe three or four years, that would have taken _him_ to get to his Mark of Mastery exam.

The man who had arrived along with Aqua, who had black hair and beard streaked with grey and wore an ample white cloak, stopped in front of Terra and looked in his eyes.

«You’re nervous, son. Try to stay calmer.» He recommended him.

«I’m sorry, Master.» Terra hinted a bow.

The formality in his words and gestures was a mere façade: the older man whom Terra had called Master, Eraqus, was the closest person the three youths had to a father. He had raised Terra and Aqua ever since the two were barely old enough to write their names, and Ventus since an old friend, brother in arms and rival of his had left him there, stating the child had been gravely wounded both in his body and his heart.

«That was an accident…» Ventus tried to defend his friend.

«I know what it was, Ventus, don’t stress out.» Master Eraqus raised a hand to calm down the youngest student. «However, I think that both for your safety and your tranquility, it’s better if the three of you finish today’s studies elsewhere, in the library.»

Nothing would have really put Ventus’s spirits down, not even the perspective of spending the rest of the afternoon on magic theory tomes, but he knew it wouldn’t have been the same for Terra, so he grinned from ear to ear to cheer his friend up and started marching for the staircase with the widest stride his short legs allowed him. Terra sighed, then forced a smile, followed Ventus and walked past him ruthlessly tousling his hair.

«Uhm, Terra?» Aqua caught up with him, with a smile halfway between embarrassed and vengeful. She passed him Shiro, who was starting to stink. «You break it, you bought it.»

Terra’s face took a shade of green, but he took the toddler and carried her to the bathroom to change her diaper.

Walking towards the hallway that led to the library, Ventus had the time to notice, in the corner of his eye, that Aqua had stayed behind and stopped in front of the broken window.

Before he turned the corner, he saw her picking up some pieces of glass.

* * *

«Wait, wait! One more time, please!» Zack laid down in the sandpit and looked at his girlfriend with a pleading smile.

«All right… just one more try, though!» Aerith, thirteen years old, an innocent smile, and wearing the uniforms of one of the middle schools of the city, ordered him.

Zack kicked up his legs and stood up in a single, fluid movement.

«Heh!»

He opened his arms and grinned wide, then he plopped himself on one of the benches of the Radiant Garden playground.

«So, are the city guards treating you okay?» The girl sat next to him, her smile still on her face.

Zack nodded. Being only sixteen years old, the job he had wasn’t full time yet – he was still obliged to attend the local high school – but he had been immediately become the big man on campus ever since he had started following one of the three city guard officers wearing a blue uniform.

Even the troublemakers in his class had pulled him aside and started proposing him to share the income of their “business” if he played along.

«For now the most heroic act I have been assigned was to retrieve a little boy who got lost in the city market. Angeal keeps saying I have to do stuff my size, which basically means that I get babied.»

Aerith turned serious.

«Zack, I know you won the bet, but I still have to ask you a favor. There’s a boy… in my class…»

«A boy?» Zack had a start. «What… who…?»

He hoped with all his heart it wasn’t bad news… Aerith was _dating him_ … of course it was more _plausible_ she’d be hanging out with someone _her age_ …

«He tried to get into the city guards as a trainee. Like you did.» Aerith looked down. «I think someone chased him away and ridiculed him, probably one of the Lord’s guards, and now he’s in low spirits.»

«There’s nothing much to do when Lord Ansem’s guards don’t like somebody…» Zack pulled a face. «And you said he’s thirteen… he might have more dreams than brains if he tried to do it now.»

Aerith smacked one of his ears.

«Zack!»

«Do you think he could make it?» Zack gave her a puzzled look.

«I don’t know.» Aerith stared back at him. «But what he needs right now is a friend. A friend like _you_.»

She took one of his hands, then she smiled again.

«You say you want to become a hero. This would be what a hero would do.»

Zack grinned back, and gently squeezed his girlfriend’s hands.

That _was_ something he could do. Aerith’s classmate wasn’t the threat he had imagined. He was just… _a friend of hers_. Maybe even a friend of his, in the future, if things were about to go as…

«ZACK AND AERITH, SITTING IN A TREE, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!»

A voice shouted behind them, and Zack looked back to see a boy his age, with spiky, messy red hair, an orange sleeveless jacket, and a yellow checkered keffiyeh over a white sleeveless shirt and tan trousers, a mischievous smirk and a makeshift megaphone in his hands.

«They’re sitting _under_ the tree, you dummy!» Next to him, another boy, with sky-blue hair neatly combed back, a navy blue jacket and spotless white trousers, gave his megaphone holding friend a condescending look.

Zack looked at the two for a moment, then he made a noisy snort.

«Of _course_ it had to be you guys!» He reproached them, then he gestured to Aerith. «Cheese…» he pointed at the red-haired boy… «… and Chalk.» … and then his tidier-looking friend.

The mention of those two nicknames produced the reaction he had hoped for, and the paper megaphone boy tossed his toy to the ground, rolling up his green eyes.

«Zack, what the heck! You do know my name!»

Zack burst into laughter. «That’s why it’s fun!»

The boy shrugged and looked at his friend, trying to get some kind of support.

«I say, Isa, did you hear him? He insulted you, too!»

«You were just _asking_ for retribution, didn’t you know?» Isa didn’t even flinch.

«Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?» Megaphone Boy picked up the megaphone and the grin and walked towards the bench. «Aerith, right?» He held out a hand. «Zack keeps talking about you. The fool who’s following is Isa, and my name is Lea.»

«Nice to meet you.» Aerith shook Lea’s hand.

«Pleasure’s mine.» Lea shifted his weight from toes to heels, then he pointed at his own head. «Just to be sure… L-e-a. Got it memorized?»

«I’m quite sure she did. Along with the _abysmal_ impression.» Isa joined Lea. «It’s a pleasure, anyway. I’m Isa. We’re in Zack’s class.»

«Yeah, sadly. They are _my_ classmates.» Zack subsided into a slouch on the bench and let his butt drag on the seat. «Never, ever, _ever_ get into science class and do lab on Lea’s same table!»

«Oh, come on, that was one time!» Lea started looking rather offended. Isa looked nonchalantly at him and raised three fingers.

«Let’s just say he can be rather _explosive_ when he…» Isa had started saying, but Zack didn’t pay attention. In a pocket of his trousers, his cell phone had started vibrating and making beeping sounds.

«Hello?» He brought the device to his ears and pressed the answer button.

« _Zack?_ » The voice of Angeal, one of the city guards’ officers, echoed from the phone. « _I’m calling on behalf of Lord Ansem. He wants you to go through further training during the summer vacation._ »

«Oh…» Zack mumbled. Summer vacation would have started within days. From a certain point of view, he didn’t know if those news were good or bad.

« _Tomorrow after school you will immediately report to the castle. Dilan knows you’re summoned, so don’t worry about being kept outside._ »

Zack covered his exposed ear with a hand, stood up, and took a pair of steps away.

«Fine. Tomorrow.»

« _I don’t know all the details, but Lord Ansem is fully convinced it’s about time you learn to use a weap…_ »

A few steps away, Lea was holding up his megaphone.

«ZAAACK! DON’T HOG ALL THE BEER, YOU BIG PIGGY!» he shouted, while Aerith stood up and tried to snatch the megaphone from him.

«Are you nuts? Shut the heck up!» Zack instinctively replied, but he immediately realized that Angeal could have heard him and thought he was telling _him_ to shut his face. «Sorry, Angeal… classmate of mine. With a megaphone.»

As soon as Zack had said “Angeal”, Lea stopped laughing and fighting Aerith and became white as a sheet.

« _Can you turn on the external speaker_?» Angeal asked Zack.

Zack took the phone away from his ear and pressed the speaker button.

« _Are you saying, kid, that some storeowners in this city could be selling alcohol to schoolchildren_?»

Lea staggered and stayed quiet.

It looked like Angeal had interpreted Lea’s silence _exactly_ as what it was meant to be, because he spoke again.

« _Tomorrow after school, I want to see you at Lord Ansem’s castle along with Zack, and I want you to tell me exactly who broke the laws_.»

* * *

There were many things of his childhood Ventus did not remember at all.

He didn’t remember where he had grown up, nor the names of his parents, nor whether he had had a real family.

He did remember his name, though. He remembered he had already learned to read and write, how to hold a weapon, that he had always loved cats, and that he had heard somewhere that to see a shooting star in the sky was a bad omen – the warning of a forthcoming disaster, or a war.

To some extent, he didn’t want to believe that.

In the last four years he had been taught not to believe to the first nonsense he heard – to observe, listen, think with his own mind, and to be _certain_ of something before starting to worry. It was one of the many things he was grateful for learning under Master Eraqus.

Terra and Aqua, sitting next to him, the former on the left and the latter on the right, on the stone bench on the summit near the castle, both looked rather worried as well, even if it was surely for other reasons: some days before that evening, the day that had preceded the window accident, the Master had announced them that they would have been tested for the Mark of Mastery exam. And the exam would have been tomorrow.

Even Shiro looked rather nervous: that evening, she had thrown a tantrum and refused food, and the three of them had convened that a walk would have _probably_ calmed her down enough for her to accept the bottle.

Probably.

At the moment it definitely looked like a lost battle.

«Hey, Aqua…» Maybe Ventus knew how to start his speech without mentioning the old forthcoming disaster saying. «Do you ever wonder what stars are? Where light comes from?»

Aqua diverted for a moment her focus from Shiro’s tantrum and looked in Ventus’s eyes.

«Well, they say…»

«That every star up there is another world.» Terra intercepted the answer, taking also the chance to ruffle Ventus’s hair. «The light is their hearts, and it's shining down on us like a million lanterns.»

That wasn’t exactly the best piece of news, but Ventus didn’t want to add more worries to his friends’ pile, so he tried to get more information as casually as he could.

«What? I don’t get it.» He shrugged.

«In other words, they're just like you and sunshine here, Ven.»

«What does that mean?» Ventus had a start. Terra’s speech just got more and more puzzling with every word.

«You’ll find out someday, I’m sure.»

«I wanna know _now_!»

«You’re too young to know now!» Terra seized Ventus’s shoulders with an arm and started rubbing his scalp with his knuckles.

«Quit treating me like a kid!» Ventus pretended to be offended and tried to wriggle away from his friend’s grip, but he did not struggle for long. He had never said it out loud and he didn’t think he had a reason to do it, but he just _loved_ the moments in which Terra and Aqua let him sit near them, hugged him, or even tickled him.

There were many things in his life Ventus did not remember at all, but if there was something his heart did not forget, it was the feeling of being _terribly alone_ for a rather long time.

Every little attention of his makeshift family reminded him that they were _there_ , they loved him, and they wouldn’t go away.

He was already leaning on Terra’s shoulder with a yawn when Ventus heard Aqua saying: «You two would make the weirdest brothers…». The young woman was keeping her voice low, as if she knew Ventus was about to conk out.

Actually, the boy found it hard to keep his eyes open… he still heard Shiro’s fussing, he felt that Terra was trying to shift his position somehow, but still Ventus felt way too sleepy to care…

«I’m scared, Terra…» Aqua was saying. «I’m afraid that tomorrow something might change us.»

«Even Shiro noticed you’re nervous…» Terra was chuckling, but something in his voice gave his worry away. «It’s gonna be okay…»

Ventus tried not to give in to sleep. Probably, if his question only had turned out to be a chance to get snuggled, he would have found the answers he was looking for now his seniors thought he wasn’t listening.

«What if…?»

« _Shush_ … tomorrow we’ll be facing each other, but whatever happens, nothing will change what’s between us.» Terra stopped to catch his breath. «And we’re supposed to take care of this big boy here and of our amazing baby…»

«Terra… thanks… thanks for everything.»

It was in moments like that, Ventus was sure of that, that everything in the worlds was right.

Then Shiro, who during all that time had kept fussing and emitting senseless speech, started complaining louder and _crying_.

Ventus opened his eyes and sat up, ready to help if they ever came to the point it was hard to calm her down (it always came easy for him to make her laugh), but Terra was already on the job: he had taken Shiro in his arms, made her sit on his lap, and, holding her with an arm, had started stroking her head.

« _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey, you’ll never know, dear, how much I love you, so please don’t take my sunshine away…_ »

Terra was badly out of tune, and in some points of the song he recited the words instead of singing, but those words to Shiro were just like an incantation – the little one smiled instantly.

After a while, Ventus joined the song, at least to cover Terra’s wrong notes and save his own eardrums, and before they finished Shiro had forgotten her tears and was happily clapping along.

«Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.» Aqua started looking for something in the pouch she wore under her sashes. «I made us good luck charms for tomorrow.»

She pulled out what looked like three small colorful stars, all made out of stained glass with a leather string hanging from each of them. Ventus immediately realized that they had been made out of the pieces of the window Terra had shattered a few days earlier.

Aqua passed the first one, orange, to Terra, then she put a second, vibrant green one, in Ventus's hands.

«I get one too?» the boy asked, surprised. He wasn't going to be tested for the mastery the following day, and he had expected more waiting before having his own.

«Of course. One for each of us!» Aqua held up the last one, the blue star she had kept for herself.

«Knowing you, there's also another for sunshine here, right?» Terra bounced Shiro on his knees.

Aqua smiled.

«There is, but she'll have to wait before she can have it. Let's say… until she knows what she can't put in her mouth!» She ran a hand through the little one's hair, while Shiro was trying to take the orange trinket from her father's hands.

They still hadn't forgotten what had happened the previous Christmas, that had also been Shiro's first birthday. Terra had carved a toy Keyblade for her and the first thing she had attempted to do with it was to leave a mark on the toy with her baby teeth.

«Somewhere out there, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit,» Aqua explained, looking up at the sky. «And the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You'll always find your way back to each other.»

She gave the boys another glance.

«Technically… I think you're supposed to make them with sea shells… but I did the best with what I had.»

«Oy, sometimes you are such a girl!» Terra hinted at a smirk.

«Hey!» Aqua immediately replied. «What do you mean “sometimes”?»

They seemed about to discuss more about that cutting remark, but Shiro started blabbering and reaching out for the bottle, breaking the moment.

«Unky gots this.» Ventus raised his shoulders, took the bottle from Aqua and the toddler from Terra, and started giving Shiro the bottle.

When the little one, finally calm, started focusing on the milk, Ventus tried to expose another of his doubts.

«So this isn't a real good luck charm?»

It was rather sad to think about it, but the scavenged pieces from the broken window weren't exactly the best surrogate for sea shells.

«That's yet to be seen.» Aqua ran a hand through his hair, then did the same to Shiro. «But I did work a little magic on it.»

«Really? What?» Ventus grinned.

Aqua returned the smile and held her blue charm up.

«An unbreakable connection.»

Ventus wasn't able to say for how long they stayed on the summit, on the bench gazing at the stars. Shiro was the first to start yawning, and immediately after he, too, felt his eyelids getting heavy, and before he could notice how really tired he was, Terra's big hand shook his shoulder and his friend's voice told him it was bedtime.

Aqua took Shiro from his arms and Terra took his hand, and the four of them walked the mountain path that would have led them to the castle and their rooms.

Everything was silent around them, they could only here their steps and some li'l old cricket bug chirping.

The only lights in the night came from the castle windows and the stars.

They were almost at the staircase that led to the main door when Terra stopped them, still holding Ventus's hand tightly in his (Ventus was pretty dure he had made a few steps with his eyes closed during the walk back home) and heaved a sigh.

That would have been the last time the three of them would have crossed that door as apprentices. Ventus tried to imagine how many years it would have taken before his turn, if his friends would have helped him, if he would have been allowed to rush into things with more than a master in the castle, whether he had changed and how much since his former master had left him there, and if the old man would have noticed it.

It was then Terra spoke.

«You folks…» The young man murmured. «You're the most important people in my life.»

He was holding his head and shoulders low, as if he was ashamed to say it out loud.

«Tomorrow… so much is gonna change…» He looked at Aqua. «You'll be a Master for sure, you're way better than me. I'll do my best… It's our dream after all. And sooner or later it's going to happen to Ven and sunshine here. But as much as things will change… remember what I said, because that never will.»


	2. Storm Clouds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #This is Terra writing.#  
> \This is Aqua writing.\  
> *This is Ventus writing.*
> 
> If there'll be other characters writing their own journals, we'll mark them in different ways, but if there's only one character writing stuff during that chapter, they may be left unmarked.

«No! Nooo, _nooooooo_!»

Recognizing Shiro’s voice, Ventus made haste towards the toddler’s room.

As it was to be expected, Aqua was there, visibly ready and without a single hair out of place, and that was definitely normal.

Shiro’s situation was much less plausible: she was hiding under her bedside table, barefoot and wearing nothing else but her diaper, refusing to come out and shouting her denial with that single syllable.

«You don’t like your new dress, do you, bub?» Ventus stopped in the doorway just to chuckle at Shiro and her childish battle.

«And she won’t come out.» Aqua sighed resignedly, then she looked at Ventus. «Well, look here who’s talking.» She commented. «I don’t see either your new shirt nor the bow tie or the vest. Why did you put on your usual clothes, Ven?»

« _Weeell_ …» Ventus folded his arms behind his head. «You may be going through the exam, but I’ll still be in the room. What if you start a fire? What if Terra breaks a window again? At least I won’t get my new duds ruined. I’ll get changed when you two do it to celebrate.»

«Is Terra still showering?» Aqua asked him in a calmer tone.

«Yeah, and he’s a bundle of nerves. And he didn’t even finish his cheese and his frittata at the breakfast table, you saw him…»

«Well, you forgot the jelly and you only noticed after a mouthful of toast and peanut butter, didn’t you, Ven?»

Shiro used Aqua’s distraction as the chance to slip away from the bedside table, toddle across the room and get into the hallway.

«You little rascal…» Ventus commented, then he sprinted out and ran after her.

It only took him a few steps to reach and catch the little girl, but he almost bumped into someone.

The man in front of him was definitely not a stranger: the dark coat, the stooped gait, the weathered face, sullen eyes, goatee and bald head… Ventus had not seen the man in four years, but the newcomer couldn’t be anyone but Master Xehanort, the Keyblade wielder who had taken him there and left him.

«Well, look at that…» The elderly master inspected the teenager and the toddler with his yellow, piercing gaze. «Ventus. _It’s been so long_ …»

«Good morning to you, Master.» Ventus hinted at a bow the best way he could while carrying the diapered infant in his arms. «Shiro, do you remember what Pawpaw said about meeting people? You gotta say _hello_ …»

Shiro’s only answer was to hide her face against Ventus’s chest.

«Come on, bub, manners. Do it for your unky.»

Shiro turned slightly her head to take a peek.

«Come on, say hello…» Ventus cued her again.

«Hello… _baldy_!»

If Ventus could have sunk in the floor, he could have done it. If he hadn’t been in front of a Keyblade Master, the childish insult would have made him roar with laughter. The only thing he could do was to bite his lip and hope for someone to rescue him… he didn’t like the disapproving look the old man was giving him. Assuming Xehanort had been Ventus’s mentor before leaving him to Castle Departure, the boy was more than happy to have nothing to do with him anymore.

He sprinted away, got back into Shiro’s room, and closed the door after himself.

«What’s wrong, Ven? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.» Aqua asked him as soon as Ventus dropped Shiro in her crib.

«Master Xehanort’s out there.» Ventus answered in a whisper. «And Shiro _made fun of Master Xehanort_.»

Some minutes later, the three youths were in the salon, all of them in their everyday garments, and Aqua had put on Shiro a kitten onesie that was one of the toddler’s favorite outfits.

Terra was still pale and nervous as he stood at attention in front of the two masters, Aqua standing next to him.

Ventus was on their left, with his back against the wall, the only real audience of the test, while the two examining Masters occupied two of the three seats on the dais of the salon. The third, central throne was taken by a booster seat and Shiro, who was there because Master Eraqus had decided she would have done best away from the candidates for safety reasons.

The little one, who had been giggling and blabbering in her father’s arms until a few moments before, was the only one unaware of the solemnity of the moment, and was happily playing with a small toy Keyblade with her named carved on the hilt, trying to recite with her one-year-old speaking skills the nursery rhyme of the ninety-nine monkeys jumping on the bed.

Every now and then, Master Xehanort threw her an annoyed look, and he seemed almost disgusted by the situation. Shiro eventually noticed.

« _Baldy old monkey_!» she squeaked, pointing her toy blade at him.

Ventus had to bite his lip again not to burst into laughter, and he could have sworn he heard Terra coughing.

Master Eraqus instead didn’t bat an eye and looked at Terra and Aqua.

«Today you will be examined for the Mark of Mastery. Not one, but two of the Keyblade's chosen stand here as candidates, but this is neither a competition nor a battle for supremacy. Not a test of wills, but a test of heart. Both of you may prevail, or neither.»

The speech was interrupted by the unmistakable thud of wood on stone when Shiro dropped her toy. Ventus was tempted to cross the room and fetch it back for her, but stood still at his place.

« But I am sure our guest, Master Xehanort, did not travel all this way to see our youngest prospects in years fall short of the Mark.» Master Eraqus continued his speech. «I trust you are ready.»

« _Yes!_ » Terra and Aqua exclaimed in unison.

The Master summoned his own Keyblade and raised his guard up.

«Then let the examination begin!»

* * *

« _Let the match begin_!»

The speaker on top of the baseball pitch at Radiant Junior High bellowed in the very moment in which Zack and his friends found themselves some seats.

Isa was still mumbling with himself with his eyed rolled up, while Aerith, who was wearing a hooded jacket with her school colors over her dress, was staring at the kids of the home team, looking for a familiar face.

«Come on Isa, here we go again. If we really want to talk about lateness, we should really mention that you kept us all waiting so you could take all the time in the world to _walk Bolt_?» Lea that morning was definitely in a bad mood, and people could see it from a mile.

«He had to go number two!» Isa immediately replied. «You kept all of us just outside the gate so you could get your sister _a balloon_!»

Lea’s sister, a quiet four-year-old with slightly darker and much tidier red hair, a white sleeveless shirt and a purple skirt, and a red balloon tied to her wrist, looked at Isa and stuck out her tongue at him.

«Thanks a lot, Kairi.» Lea plopped on a seat and sighed.

«So, which one’s the classmate of yours you told me about?» Zack asked Aerith as he sat next to her.

«He should be on the diamond any moment.» Aerith kept watching the team. «He’s got spiky blond hair, very spiky, and his jersey is number seven.»

«Is that a girl?» Lea interrupted them, pointing at the player who was currently in the batter’s box, who had long black hair under their helmet and a hint of breasts under the team jersey.

«Yeah, that’s Tifa. And you really shouldn’t doubt her batting skills if you care about your teeth.» Aerith pointed out.

Near them, Lea had let Kairi sit on his lap and had started explaining to her the rules of the game. Only an hour before, as they had left their home, he had shown annoyance when his grandmother had entrusted him with his little sister for the day, but judging by his behavior, Lea looked really fond of Kairi.

It was a side of the boy that Zack, only having known him at school, had never known or imagined. The same was for Isa – he had never guessed the blue-haired boy to be a dog person, and yet when he was in sight of Bolt, his White Shepherd, the teen was unrecognizable. Zack had never seen him laughing that much.

Zack had started hanging out with Lea and Isa since the day Angeal had “summoned” Lea to the castle to question him. After Lea had sworn up and down that no shop he had ever been to sold alcohol to kids, Angeal had communicated to Zack he would have left at the start of the summer vacation to be trained properly as a guard, and Zack had found himself with a promise made to Aerith he didn’t know if he would have been able to keep.

Then Lea had offered his help with that, and in the following days they had seen each other in the few spare moments Zack could use for them.

They had never managed, though, to catch Cloud, the lonely eighth-grader Aerith had mentioned, an introvert youth who seemed to live alone with his widowed mother and helped her at home whenever he wasn’t studying or playing baseball, so they had decided to wait for the final game of the school year so they could catch him when the match was over.

After Tifa, more kids succeeded her in the batter’s box. Zack heard Aerith saying their names, one after another.

Cecil. Claire. Bart. Wedge.

Then finally.

«There he is, that’s Cloud!»

A tiny player with messy blond hair was running away from the bench, constricting his yellow spikes under the helmet. He had an ugly greenish hue, and if Aerith hadn’t immediately pointed him out as her classmate, Zack would have thought him to be a sixth-grader instead.

«I’m not surprised the guards have kicked him out immediately.» Zack whispered to Aerith. «I would have never said he’s your age.»

Cloud was shaking a little when he positioned himself in the batter’s box.

The opponent pitcher threw the ball, _strike one_. Cloud raised the bat again and waited for the second pitch, _strike two_.

At his third attempt, the boy managed to run three bases, but immediately after the umpire declared him safe, Cloud bent over on shaky legs, fell on his hands, and threw up on the base.

«Here he goes again with his nerves…» Aerith rolled her eyes. «He’s got a bad case of performance anxiety.»

«I really don’t envy the runners…» Lea commented.

Almost to confirm what Lea had just said, the umpire ordered a time out and ordered the staff to get there and clean up the vomit, then he put an arm around Cloud’s shoulders and took him out of the diamond.

«He’s not too bad as a batter, though.» Isa commented pointing at the score board, where two points had just been added for the Radiant Junior High team for the hits Cloud had earned them.

«Yeah, that was a good shot. He was shaking, got it? Hadn’t he been that nervous, maybe he could have scored a home run.» Lea added.

Zack noticed that many of the players of the visiting team, the Western Woods, were laughing as they left the pitch, and asked himself whether they would have laughed that much if Cloud had barfed on the _home base_ , right on their catcher, instead of on the third one.

«They’re cleaning up.» Aerith pointed out. «I think it’s our chance. We should go to him.»

She stood up and led them down the bleachers, until the fenced borders of the pitch. Cloud was sitting on the bench and staring at his shoes, with a paper bag laid on the bench near him. The girl who had batted first, Tifa, was not too far away, looking at him without getting too close.

Aerith tried to approach the players and catch the boy’s attention, but Kairi was faster. She approached Cloud, untied the balloon from her wrist, and handed it out.

«Are you sad?» she asked him.

Cloud ignored her for a moment. Zack tried to intervene, but Lea stopped him.

«My big brother says that that was a good shot.» Kairi continued, offering Cloud the balloon one more time. «He’s the big boy over there, the one with the bandana who looks like a dork.»

Cloud looked up.

«Thank… you… very much…» he answered in a rather scratchy voice.

«Yeah, _thank you very much_.» Lea sighed loudly, making Aerith giggle.

Zack decided it was time, and stepped forward, walking until he was right in front of the spiky-haired batter.

«Can I see that again?» he asked him.

«What?» Cloud stared at him, puzzled. He didn’t seem to have realized who he was talking to, but then again Zack was in his civvies.

«I want to see that shot. Where no one else is watching.» Zack smirked. «Just me, you, Aerith, Kairi, and Chalk and Cheese here.»

« _The name is Lea_ , you blockhead!»

Cloud looked in Zack’s eyes for a moment, without a doubt asking himself where was the catch. Zack held out a hand and stayed still, without telling him anything.

A moment later, Cloud gave back Kairi her balloon, flattened his spiky hair under his helmet, picked up his bat, mitten and ball, stood up, and said: «Okay.»

«Whoa! Come on, Cloud, join the big boys now!» Lea patted his back.

Zack sprinted immediately between him and Cloud, ready to shelter the younger boy from his feisty classmate, and led to group to the main square, to finally stop in the smaller area surrounded by four flowerbeds.

He made Cloud stand in one of the corners of the area and took the ball from his hands, then he walked backwards towards the center.

«Lea and Isa will play defense, I’m the pitcher, and if the ball gets past the pines in the flowerbeds behind me, it’s a home run. Ready?» Zack pulled out from one of his pockets his old mitten, and Lea and Isa put on theirs.

Cloud seemed way too focused on the ball in Zack’s hands to understand it had all been planned for days.

«Okay, then hit it!» Zack threw the ball at him.

Far away from the gazes of dozen of strangers, in the deserted square, Cloud looked much more able to keep his eyes on the ball and his mind on playing.

Zack heard almost immediately the thud of the bat, and the ball shot up high, over the pine trees.

«Run, Cloud, _run_!» Aerith immediately shouted, and the kid, after a brief moment of confusion, threw his bat on the ground and ran counterclockwise to all the four corners of the inner square, raising a fist with a joyful cry once he was done.

Isa and Lea had left the center of the square, probably looking for the ball, but if it had been a real game, _Cloud would have scored_.

«Great job, spiky!» Zack ran to Cloud, removed his helmet and gave him a one-armed hug.

«Oh, yeah _, great job indeed_.»

One of the castle guards – _Lord Ansem’s personal guards_ – had entered the square delimited by the greenery, pushing Lea and Isa in front of himself.

Under Zack’s arm, Cloud almost seemed to go limp when he saw him. He had his eyes wide open and his head down low, almost to guard himself.

«What’s the matter, Braig? No law forbids playing in the square!» Zack held up Cloud with a hand, gesturing him to stand up straight, and glared at the guard.

Only then he noticed that a lump was swelling on the royal marksman’s forehead. Cloud had _scored a hit on his head_.

«No, I’m only saying it would be a _real shame_ ,» Braig held up Cloud’s ball and smirked. «If Captain Sephiroth came to know one of his men hit a royal guard with a _nanshiki_ ball!»

Cloud broke free from Zack’s grip and stepped forward.

«It wasn’t him, it was me!» he almost cried out.

Braig approached him and gave him a scowl.

«Oh, so the brat came back.» He pressed a hand on Cloud’s hand. «Haven’t you learned your lesson, nappy boy?»

«Give that ball back. It’s mine!» Cloud hissed again. «There’s _my_ name on it!»

Even Isa, who normally never lost his cool, looked rather surprised in front of the younger kid’s sudden courage.

«As if! I think I’m going to keep this.» Braig stuffed the ball into his pocket. «There’s a _champion_ ’s signature on it. _Ciao_ , kiddos!»

He left so quickly that he seemed to have magically disappeared.

«Cloud, I’m so sorry for your baseball.» Zack immediately said, promising himself he would have found and given him his old junior high nanshiki ball before leaving.

«He can keep that.» Cloud snorted. He looked a totally different person from the child who had thrown up on the third base.

«It was him, wasn’t he?» Aerith reached them, holding Kairi’s hand. «The castle guard who insulted you when you tried to talk to the city guards?»

«The idiot himself.» Now Cloud was smirking. «I made him see stars and _he freaking knows it was me_!»

He picked up the bat and the helmet, and there was a new light in his eyes.

«Oh, anyway…» Zack raised his shoulders and gave him a smile. «You _did_ talk to a city guard eventually, spiky. I… didn’t introduce myself. I’m Zack, guard in training!»

* * *

Terra sat on the lowest step of the courtyard stairs and stared outside.

He had woken up nervous that morning, his heart invaded by the fear of failure, but he had never really _believed_ failure to be a possibility, not until the Master, the man who he had always considered as his own father, the man who had raised him ever since he had had all baby teeth, had looked in his eyes and told him that _no, he had not passed the Mark of Mastery_.

“ _But there’s always next time_ ,” he had said. But Terra did not feel like trying again.

He felt just like someone had punched and kicked away all the enthusiasm and motivation out of him.

«Dada!»

He looked back, hearing Shiro’s voice. His baby was sitting on the highest step, and giving him a mischievous, triumphal look.

The toddler stood up, then she sat on the step where she had laid her feet before, and stuck out her short legs on the lower step. She stood up again. She sat down, stuck out her feet… and then she decided it would have been faster to drag her backside from a step to another.

«What are you up to, sunshine?» Terra walked up to her. «Do you want to learn to walk down the stairs?»

Shiro nodded and mumbled a «Uhm!» that Terra was not sure whether to translate as a yes or a no.

«Do you want me to teach you?» He took her hands.

As her only answer, Shiro tried to grab his arms and made several gestures to ask for a hug.

«What’s the matter?» The young man picked up the girl and held her in his arms.

Shiro looked in his eyes.

«Dada boo?»

Terra shook his head. «No, sunshine… I didn’t get hurt. Dada is just a little sad, that’s it.»

«Dada no sad. Dada stwong. Dada…» The toddler’s face was contorted in a grimace, as if she wanted to remember a word. «Dada _hewo_.»

She seemed rather satisfied with what she had managed to say, but Terra was rather convinced that the new word had been taught to her on purpose. He only had to find out who did – he was rather inclined to believe it had been Ventus.

«The darkness is nothing to fear.»

Master Xehanort’s voice emerged from the castle doorway, immediately followed by its owner.

The elderly Keyblade Master proceeded slowly, with his back slightly hunched and a gaze that seemed to pierce one’s soul, and while he approached them, Terra noticed that Shiro was hiding her own face.

«And yet, how frustrating that Eraqus refutes its power. Why, you could train with him forever, and still you'd never be a Master in his eyes.» Xehanort continued.

Terra tried to soothe Shiro making her bounce in his arms, but he stayed serious.

«I don’t understand, Master. What is it that I have failed to learn?»

«You are fine as you are,» Xehanort concluded, walking away. «Darkness cannot be destroyed, it can only be channeled.»

Terra started thinking of a possible answer, probably something to thank the master, but a noise came from behind him – the castle bells had just started ringing.

He did not know what it could mean, not that time, but he had been taught it was for important news, if not even _emergencies_ , and he did the most reasonable thing that came to his mind.

He spun on his heels, still holding his daughter, and ran back inside.

* * *

Ventus ran to his room and threw himself on the bed, without even minding to take off his shoes.

He had imagined a million times that day, but he had never expected things to go like _that_.

Without even standing up, he picked up the wooden Keybade from the spot he kept it, on the chair next to the bed, and started swinging it back and forth.

It wouldn’t have been too bad to have more of those corrupted light spheres that had started attacking _him too_ in that moment, at least he would have had something to lash out against. Years before, that “toy” had been so heavy that even swinging it for a few minutes would have sent twinges of pain up his arms…

Before leaving his room that morning, he had drawn a line on the growth chart near the door that Aqua had started when he had arrived there.

The wall was immaculate until 4 feet and 1 inch, where the first line had been traced in black marker along with the words “AGE TWELVE”.

_«How old can he be? Nine?» Terra asked in a tone that almost bordered on whispering._

_«Xehanort could not tell me the date of his birth,» Master Eraqus said, in a normal tone. «There’s no need for whispering, Terra, Ventus can hear you. And I think he will also be able to tell us his age without too many problems.»_

_«Huh?» Ventus let slip. He didn’t know the answer to that question – he had no memory of that._

_The Master approached him and helped him stand up._

_«Now, Ventus, be a good boy and say AAAAAAAH.»_

_Ventus followed the orders. The Master kept his mouth open with one of his fingers and bowed slightly his head to look inside. He hinted at a grin._

_«I can see premolars. And he has already had a voice break. You know, kids, I think he must be twelve.»_

Over the first marks there were more, other moments of his life. When he had summoned Wayward Wind to his hand, when he had started casting magic, the day Terra had taught him to do a headstand and the day he had been given his friend’s old toy Keyblade, the four recurrences of the date Aqua had decided to celebrate his birthday, the night he had woken up after strange dreams and he had remembered he had had a cat during his childhood.

That morning he had written “Terra and Aqua’s exam” on the highest mark, but now the words had been erased by a huge black scribble.

He asked himself when would Aqua be coming to knock on the door and tell him to get changed.

He asked himself what he could have answered to her, because _he did not feel like changing_. It just wasn’t fair.

He didn’t think there was anything to celebrate, not when Terra had failed his exam and had left the hall to sit in the gardens.

He stayed on his bed, staring at the ceiling, for a little more, until the castle bells made him jump to his feet. He doubted Aqua or any other occupant of the castle would have given him the motivation to move, but if the bells were ringing, something important had to have happened – maybe even an emergency – and whoever heard the ring was summoned to the hall.

Ventus had never heard a true alert, only a few drills, and he highly doubted that this was another.

He was almost in the hallways when he heard a voice behind him.

«Better hurry, Ventus, or you’ll never see Terra again.»

Ventus spun on the spot. There was someone leaning against his desk. A human figure, entirely covered by strange garments, probably black leather, clinging to their body like a second skin. Their face – no, _his face_ , he sounded and looked masculine – was hidden by a black mask and not a single inch of his skin was visible.

«What? Get real, I can see Terra anytime I want!» Ventus immediately replied, approaching the stranger. He couldn’t be an adult – he was about as tall as he was, and _he_ was short for his age.

Did he have something to do with the alert? He had never seen the guy before.

«Like right now? He’s leaving you behind.» The shady guy replied. Even his voice was the immature one of a growing youth. «And by the time you catch up, he’ll be a different person.»

Even without him speaking, the mere presence of the boy in black made Ventus uncomfortable. But his words were even _worse_. Ventus felt an icy fist hitting his abdomen and freezing over his intestines for every sentence that the intruder spoke.

«Look, whoever you are, you don’t know the first thing about Terra!» Ventus tried to put together his best menacing tone and reply. «Me and him will _always_ be a team… are you trying to pick up a fight or what?»

He raised his guard, heedless that what he was holding was a mere toy. Maybe that intruder boy didn’t even know it was.

Then again, that toy _was heavy_. Maybe not enough to seriously wound someone – and that was the reason it had been built – but if he had struck some critical spots, he would have at least left some lumps or bruises.

«Oh, _grow up_.» The intruder walked away from his desk and strolled through the room. «Is that what you call friendship?» He turned to Ventus again, staring at him with his creepy eyeless gaze. «You'll never know the truth unless you go out and look for it yourself. Come on, what could you possibly know when you're stuck here, looking at nothing but what's in your tiny world?»

A shadow rose on the wall in front of the intruder, and the boy walked right through it… and vanished inside it.

_Just where had he gone_?

* * *

_#Terra’s Notes – December 1 – Five days since Ventus#_

_#Before leaving him here, Master Xehanort told us nothing about him. We don’t even know how old he is, or at least we didn’t until Master Eraqus measured his stature and examined his voice and his teeth, before finally stating he has to be about twelve years old.#_

_#He doesn’t look like he’s twelve, not at all. I mean, I may be sixteen and tall for my age, but I was thinking he was nine… even less for how he acts. He looks like a blank slate. He already is a perfect stranger right now, and it’s even harder to get to know him considering he isn’t talking to us.#_

_#Master Eraqus suggested me to take notes of all I see Ventus doing, and to try to understand the person he is by mere observation.#_

_#It’s not easy. Not with a child who keeps staring at the wall, hardly speaks, and flinches if he gets touched.#_

_#Day Six.#_

_#Ventus doesn’t have spare clothes, so I left him an old PJs I’ve outgrown. The top reaches his knees and I had to roll him up the trousers, but he ALMOST_ _started laughing when he saw the dinosaur and the sentence printed on the front.#_

_#I can’t even imagine what caused the scar he has just on the left of his sternum, but it had to really hurt, even if it doesn’t look very deep. It’s not his only scar, though. I’ve spotted claw marks, old grazes on elbows and knees that makes me think he fell down a lot of times. I’m really wondering what has happened for him to end up like that.#_

_#Yesterday night we were woken up by his night terrors.#_

_#Week Two#_

_#He’s afraid of scissors. Seriously?#_

_#We have to do something for his hair, they’re getting messy, especially on the front, and if he doesn’t let me trim them, they’ll cover his eyes eventually. Aqua tried to cut his hair.#_

_#Ventus hid under the bed.#_

_#Day Fifteen.#_

_\Seriously, Terra?_

_Waste less time trying to take notes and let’s try to help Ven. THANKS._

_-Aqua\_

_#Ventus has started blowing his hair away from his face. I excused myself, went to the bathroom, came back to the hall with my hands covered in hair gel and ran both hands through his hair.#_

_#Little guy complained, but at least now he can see… and he let me touch him, as soon as he realized I was helping him.#_

_#Day Twenty.#_

_#Aqua started calling him Ven. VEN LIKES IT.#_

_#A Month.#_

_#We have celebrated the new year with a playful tournament on the summit. Wooden weapons, obviously.#_

_#Ventus tried his best, but… well, he’s a kid and he moves like a kid.#_

_#He needs to build up some strength in his arms. I left him my old training sword. He can hardly lift it up… but he needs it more than I do.#_

_#I don’t know if I really did the right thing.#_

_\You DID.\_

_#A month and a half.#_

_#Just how much peanut butter does Ventus eat? I think he could LIVE off toast with peanut butter and jelly.#_

_#If you’re reading this, Aqua, stop indulging his whims, the Master could blame us both!#_

_\Oh LOOK WHO’S WRITING.\_

_\A month and a half.\_

_\Who would have guessed Ven would be so chatty?\_

_\I can’t stay in the same room with him without him deciding to talk about something.\_

_\It’s a huge improvement compared to even two weeks ago.\_

_\He has started asking me for advice about magic. He had already tried it with Terra, but I don’t think it ended well, considering the way Ven clung to my arm after I showed him Fire.\_

_#Excuse me._ _Are you two teaming up against me?_ _#_

_#Three months#_

_#Just WHO told Ven it is socially acceptable to tackle people without any kind of warning?#_

_\You when you LAUGHED at him.\_

_\Three months and a half\_

_\Ven still has night terrors. Sometimes he wakes us up. Last night I crossed the hallway to ask him if he needed something, and Terra had the same idea.\_

_#And we all ended up sleeping in the same bed.#_

_#OUCH, my back._ _#_

_*One year and five months*_

_*(Ha, busted!)*_

_*There’s something wrong with those two._ _Terra’s pale like a coward in a crypt, and this morning he lost his grip on his glass and made a glass and juice mess on the floor. As for Aqua… where do I start? I’ve lost the count of the mornings I see her running to the bathroom after breakfast.*_

_*There’s something they’re not telling me. Something they WON’T tell me.*_

_*Guys, if there’s something wrong… last minute news. I’m fourteen (thirteen and a half, but still…) and I’m your best friend. Will you please TALK TO ME?*_

_*- Ven*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sentence on Terra's childhood PJs says "I roar in my sleep". I never actually got to write it, not in the final draft, but I thought you all still should know.
> 
> Yeah, I did headcanon Lea and Kairi as siblings, honestly, those two act so much like they are, and it's going to be a major plot point. I'm always happy whenever I see fanfics in which they're related, (Cometverse I'm looking at ya!) and Lea acts so much like a big brother anyway.  
> Isa being a dog person is taken from the Days manga, which I'm partly considering canon.


	3. Of Time and People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the old draft of the story I attached playlists for the readers - normally I don't do that anymore, but I'd suggest you to play Celtic Woman's cover of "When You Wish Upon a Star" when you come across Sora's first POV. It was the music I was listening to when I wrote it, so at least you can feel a little like I felt as I wrote it.
> 
> \- BNF

«I’m home!» Lea entered his house, closed the door, and threw himself on the creaky living room couch.

It had been definitely a _chaotic_ day in town, and the boy was ready to bet his frisbees, if the pain in his rear end was a signal of something, before tomorrow his butt would have turned blue.

«Lea, Lea, there’s knights in town!» Kairi ran from her room and jumped on the couch next to him.

« _Knights_? Kai, are you serious?» Lea didn’t even need to pretend to be interested.

Ever since Cloud had scored a home run on Braig’s head, strange things were happening. In the darkest alleys of the city, _monsters_ had appeared, and the city guards had their hands full with keeping people safe. That very day, Isa had started considering carrying his father’s spade around to use it as a makeshift weapon, at least to repel attackers.

Was Zack back home? No, it couldn’t be. He was supposed to stay away for the remainder of summer.

«Have you seen Genesis? Angeal?» Lea tried to ask his little sister for details on what had happened.

«No, it was a _girl_ knight.» Kairi’s face contorted in trying to memorize her. «A pretty lady with blue hair and a big sword. Oh and there was another. Short and stumpy with _the biggest ears ever_!» She made two circle-like gestures with her hands on the top of her head. «They destroyed the monsters at the castle. Then Grandma came and took me home.»

«Where’s Grandma now? Still at work?» Lea asked her as Kairi snuggled against him. The child nodded.

«Mrs. Fair was here until some time ago. She wouldn’t go away, but I told her you’d be back soon.»

Lea bit his lip to repress his disappointment. _He was in trouble_. He had nothing against Zack’s mother keeping an eye on Kairi more often than not – Grandma still worked as a librarian at the castle, and she was their guardian ever since Lea had been in eighth grade. Help was always a blessing…

… but Mrs. Fair would have told Grandma that Kairi had stayed home alone.

«Why are you late?» Kairi asked him, almost reading his thoughts.

Sometimes Lea really felt for his sister. After the absurd accident that had taken away their parents when she had been one year old, Kairi hardly had any memories of them, and had grown up and matured faster than her age of almost five. It wasn’t fair she knew the real meaning of “being late” for stuff less trivial than preschool.

«I’ve met a knight too.» Lea decided to tell his own story with all the imagination he could stick in, even if something in the bottom of his heart kept telling him that probably that tale had some truth within. «A boy just like me.»

«He saved you from the monsters, didn’t he?» Kairi sat up.

«Noooo way, I saved him!» Lea booped his sister on her nose. «He was mercilessly assaulted… by sadness!»

Kairi gave him a puzzled look, but Lea didn’t stop telling his story.

«Down in the dumps, alone with his sword. Even heroes need a helping hand sometimes.»

«What did you do then, Lea?» Kairi pouted and asked him in an inquisitional voice.

«A kid’s gotta do what a kid’s gotta do!» Lea gave his sister a smile. «I became his friend.»

* * *

_Ven’s Memoirs – Page 1_

_*I’ve read somewhere that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.*_

_*No one ever told me whether it’s for the better, or for the worse.*_

_*I’ve learned from Master Eraqus that the world surrounding us is the consequence of our own actions. Maybe it was one of the first things he ever explained as soon as I was awake enough to understand.*_

«This is your room, Ventus. It’s your responsibility from now on.» The Master made Ventus sit on the bed and gestured at the room surrounding them.

It was bare like only a place that had not been used in years could have been. The walls were empty, the desk and the shelves were coated in dust, and the only thing that could have hinted someone lived in there was the unmade bed in which Ventus had woken up a few hours before.

«This castle has its ways to stay clean, but you will have to make sure your bed is tidy and your stuff isn’t all over the place. You’ll find clean sheets in the laundry, where you’ll have to take your clothes when they get dirty. I’m not telling this all is going to be easy for you, but I want you to get used to this responsibility, so don’t be ashamed of asking for help if you need it.» The Master grinned. «Taking care of the worlds always begins from ourselves and our own spaces.»

Ventus forced himself to look up.

«What does it mean?» he asked his new mentor.

«Well, Ventus, you’re the new kid here. It means your new classmates and I have to get used to you, just like you have to get used to us.» The Master sat on his bed next to him. «The way Terra and Aqua will behave with you depends on the way you behave with them, and so on. And it will be like this with every person you’ll meet in your life.»

Ventus said nothing, and restricted himself to looking at the Master in a questioning way. It wasn’t exactly clear.

«Everything in the worlds around us is the consequence of everyone’s actions.» The Master put a hand on his shoulder. For a moment, Ventus feared he was being grabbed, or hit, or anything else, but it didn’t happen. «People behave in a certain way for a certain reason, that can be another person’s behavior, something that just happened, and that something has its own cause as well. Even the most insignificant person, even a crying baby, may drastically change what might happen in the immediate and remote future.»

«What does it mean then?» Ventus found the courage to ask.

«It means that, as much as it’s possible, as a Keyblade wielder, I’m asking you to be a cause for _order_ and not for mayhem.» The Master stood up and smiled again at him. «Welcome to the family, Ventus. This was lesson number one.»

_*It isn’t easy to understand whether what you’re doing in that moment is order or mayhem. I thought that following Terra to prevent him from leaving was a way to prevent mayhem from happening – to save my brother in arms… to save the order that our friendship was.*_

_*I would have never imagined that Vanitas’s speech had a purpose – to keep me in my room until it was too late to prevent Terra from leaving.*_

_*I had been fooled like an infant, and in a certain way, they had used my actions to cause further mayhem.*_

_*When I understood – when Xehanort used me to provoke Master Eraqus into fury and hostility, to make him raise his own blade against me and Terra – I thought they had just hit rock bottom.*_

_*Then they started using Shiro.*_

«Fine. Then I'll give you a reason to fight.» Vanitas hopped off the bridge and walked towards Ventus. «Come and find me, at the one and only place to spawn the X-blade… the Keyblade Graveyard.»

His gaze without eyes held Ventus’s, then a hand covered in leather took something from under the clothes.

Ventus found himself staring at a couple inches of what looked like a tuft of white strings. Vanitas snapped his fingers, turning the strings to ash, and only by the acrid smell Ventus realized it had been _hair_.

«Then we'll see how long you play the _pacifist_ with your bub in our hands!»

He threw the ash on his face, then he opened a shadow portal to vanish.

 _Shiro_. That was her hair. They had taken Shiro.

How could it be…? How did they end up in that trap, and how did Xehanort _manage_ to make sure she, an innocent, fell into it too?

«I’ve been an _idiot_!» Ventus cried out to the air. Vanitas’s appearance in his room, what Master Xehanort had told him… what could have belied, at that point, that Terra’s very Mark of Mastery exam had not been rigged from the very beginning?

 _They had taken Shiro_.

Ventus would have run off to tell someone, but who? Master Eraqus would not have listened to him, not after what he had told him. Terra had sent him away, and after all he had said and the way he had run off, he did not feel brave enough to go looking for Aqua.

And had he wasted any time to go looking for anyone of them – even Master Yen Sid, who had helped him in Mickey’s search – maybe it would have even been too late to save Shiro.

No.

 _He had to do that_ , and face the consequences.

* * *

The sky was starry on Radiant Garden that night, but in the main square of the city a battle was raging.

A young man, sheltered in an abandoned house, took a sigh and sat with his back against a wall.

 _Everything is going just as planned_ , even if he was not sure of how long would it take for the plan to succeed.

«… and after a long walk, Russell told us he found something. He followed the paw prints and found a huge bird. I’m telling you, it was really huge, with tiny little wings, legs as tall as a whole person, a looong neck and eyes as big as saucers!»

His listener stared at him, amazed as if the very Master of Masters was speaking before her.

«Mr. Fredricksen had tried to chase her away with his walking stick, but Kevin the bird swallowed it whole!» The boy continued. «But she didn’t like the stick, so she immediately spat it out. But she liked so much Russell’s chocolate…»

«Mowe!» The toddler asked him to continue his story.

When the young man had taken Shiro away from the crumbling castle, the little one had done hardly anything but wailing, but after hours passed, with the help of a bottle he had found in the kitchens before leaving, the right song, and the story of when he and his best friend had saved Kevin the momma snipe with the help of a retired balloon salesman and a boy scout, she had calmed down and she was smiling.

«And there were a flying ship, and so many talking dogs, and in the end Mister Fredricksen with our help managed to save the snipe and to fly his home to Paradise Falls.»

The boy looked up to the window that opened on the square. The noise of the battle had ceased, and strangely no one seemed to have noticed the uproar.

«What do you say, sunshine? Can we say bye-bye?»

Shiro looked up in his eyes and «Uh?»ed. She didn’t seem to exactly understand what was happening, but considering his age, that was to be expected.

He couldn’t stay there for long. _He could not_ take her along.

That toddler’s world had been destroyed in little less than a day, and there was only one way not to leave her to her fate.

* * *

«Lea! Get up!»

The boy stifled a yawn and cocooned himself even tighter in his sheets, covering his head with his pillow. It was _summer_. Why did Grandma want him to get up so bad?

«I need your help, son. I need you to come to the castle today.» Grandma repeated, her voice getting closer and closer.

«Uuuuh?» Lea opened his eyes and sat up. Grandma almost had a hand on his bedding, and in the bed near his, Kairi, already dressed up but barefoot, was jumping on the mattress. «Grandma, I told Isa and Cloud we’d meet at McDuck’s…» Lea tried to complain.

«There was an emergency in the square last night. Professor Even has phoned this morning… Braig found in the square a young man and a little girl. They need someone to take care of the little one until they find her family.»

Lea rolled his eyes. Wasn’t it enough he had had to learn to change girls’ diapers at thirteen because Grandma worked at the library? He didn’t want to do it again – and for a total stranger! Kairi had been acceptable…

«Why should _I_ do that? Do I look like Mary Poppins by any chance?» Lea made a loud snort.

«No, you do look like the person I can trust the most at the moment.» Grandma stood near the bed and sat next to him. «They found them at sunrise and there aren’t many people who get into that castle. Even less are the ones who have family. Do you mind being man enough for this responsibility?»

An hour later, Lea had prepared breakfast for himself and his sister, had dressed up and combed his hair the best he could, and was at the castle gates with Grandma and Kairi, with half his face covered by his keffiyeh and looking down, hoping Lord Ansem’s guards not to recognize him and make him cut a sorry figure right in front of his family.

«This is no place for kids, ma’am.»

 _Last famous words_. Dilan, the dark-haired guard, approached Lea with a spear and pointed it on his cloth-covered nose.

«I _did_ tell I would be bringing my grandchildren here, Dilan.» Grandma stood between Lea and the guard. «Lea is here to take care of the little girl you found in the square, and I can’t leave Kairi home alone.»

«Family of yours, huh?» Dilan lowered Lea’s keffiyeh with a single motion of his hand. «Your _trustworthy_ grandson here tried to trespass several time with a buddy of his. Forgive me if I’m cautious.»

Grandma looked daggers at Lea, but then she turned her glare once more on Dilan.

«Whatever his reasons might have been, now he’s _with me_ and you’ll have to respond to Even if you throw him out _now_.»

For a moment, silence filled the gardens. Kairi, still holding onto Lea’s hand, gently squeezed his fingers in a gesture that had always meant understanding between the siblings. The boy decided it was time to play along and show the guards the reason he was there, he bent to Kairi’s level and picked her up.

«Fine.» It was Aeleus who intervene. «We _will_ talk to Even. The boy’s going to wait in the hallways.»

They opened the door, leading Lea, Kairi and Grandma inside.

«Did it go well?» Kairi whispered in Lea’s ear. Lea shrugged.

The guards led them in a corridor without windows, until they got to a red door where they stopped them. Lea had already been in that zone of the castle when Zack had taken him there, weeks before that seemed a lifetime, before he and Isa had started to get busted. The guards and Grandma entered the room, leaving Lea and Kairi alone to wait for them.

From somewhere in the castle came the distinct sound of a toddler wailing.

«The girl…» Kairi murmured.

The regular, heavy sound of the steps of an adult man filled the hallway, louder and louder, closer and closer, and from behind a corner a familiar face appeared.

«Lea? What are you doing in here?»

It was neither a castle guard nor a scientist who had recognized him – it was Angeal of the city watch, Zack’s mentor.

«Good morning, sir.» Lea straightened himself the best he could while still holding his sister and hinted at a salute.

Angeal approached them with a worried look.

«You should be at home, with what happened yesterday night…»

«We are here _because_ something happened yesterday night.» Lea put Kairi down and looked in Angeal’s eyes. «Our grandmother, my sister’s and mine, who’s the librarian here, says a man and a toddler have been found in the square. Braig found them. I’m here because… _I can change diapers_.»

«Braig?» Angeal rolled his eyes. «Why does that man always find trouble wherever he sticks his nose?»

«Did he really lose an eye?» Kairi indiscreetly intervened.

« _Kairi!_ » Lea tried to stop her.

«How can someone _lose an eye_?» The preschooler asked again. «Did it fall from his face?»

Angeal covered his mouth with a hand and emitted a snort.

Lea would have wanted the floor to swallow him.

«Believe me, Kairi, it’s for the best we don’t tell you.» It was Lea’s turn to roll his eyes.

The door was opened, and the guards came out with Grandma and Even.

«… what I’m asking myself is _why_ did you take the time to make me waste _mine_!» Even was yelling at the guards. «We’re _given_ a babysitter for the squirt and you try to throw him out?»

Some minutes later, Angeal was escorting Lea to the castle’s guesthouse and knocked on one of the doors.

A boy – about eleven, judging by his stature – with an oversized labcoat and a way too serious face opened the door. Half of his face was covered by a thick steel-blue fringe.

«Ienzo, I have the baby-sitter.» Angeal told the boy. The kid nodded and ran away from the room, without saying a word.

Lea looked around – it definitely looked like a guest room. The little girl everyone was talking about was sitting on a bed moved against a wall, with pillows put under the fitted sheets to prevent her from falling, and was wailing her lungs out. She was wearing a grey kitten onesie that was visibly grimy, tuft of her whitish hair were missing, as if someone had cut them off without caring for how she would have looked without, and her face was streaked by tears.

Lea bit his lip – that wouldn’t have been easy. He grinned as wide as he could, gestured Kairi to stand back for a moment, and sat on the floor with his back against the wall.

«Hello there, ‘shroom. Nice to meet ya,» he started out speaking slowly. «I am Lea. Got it memorized?»

He reached out for her. She reminded him of Kairi a lot – in the accident days. Even that girl had her same dismayed look, maybe even more for the messy hair and dirty garment. And she even looked the same age Kairi had been when it had happened – a year and a half.

The little one stopped crying and stared in his eyes.

« _Hel-loo._ » Lea spoke again. Whatever he was going to do, the kid had to be calmed down one way or another.

«I want Dada…» the toddler started whining.

Lea covered his face with a hand. _Now, that’s a good start_.

* * *

«Zack, aren’t you?»

A figure dressed in black turned around a corner in Thebes’s streets and stopped in front of the boy. Zack had never seen him _in person_ , but he knew the man. Captain Sephiroth, the head of the Radiant Garden city guard. _What was he doing there_?

«Sir?» Zack stood at attention, then quickly looked back.

Hercules and Phil were still busy in the square, Phil yelling and Hercules doing push-ups.

«You’ve been urgently summoned home.»

Zack would have asked if something had happened, whether his family was okay, but Sephiroth hastily grabbed his arm and everything around them faded to black,

The world came back into focus and Zack found himself in the Radiant Garden main square – the same place in which Cloud had scored a home run on Braig’s head.

He immediately noticed something was wrong.

There were grooves in the stone pavement, slabs broken, blackened by fire, and pieces of stone scattered everywhere. A tree had been uprooted, some had burns, and another had been cut down – an almost clean cut.

Despite being in the open air, in the center of the square there was a distinct odor, stagnant and stale, that Zack almost seemed to recognize.

It immediately brought Hades up to his mind.

He turned towards Sephiroth to ask him what had just happened, but the Captain wasn’t there.

Zack was alone.

 _You’ve been urgently summoned home_.

Something had had to happen, but what? Zack was tempted to go and talk to his parents – assuming something hadn’t happened to _them_ – or to run to the castle and ask Angeal, when two voices cut through the silence and two boys ran up to him.

«Zack! Zack, it’s you, right?»

Cloud was the first to reach him. Taciturn Isa was on his heels.

Neither of the two was empty-handed: Cloud was clutching his baseball bat in his hand and Isa had on his shoulder a heavy-looking gardening spade that luckily was only covered in dirt.

«What happened?» Zack asked them. «Where’s Lea?»

The two stayed silent for a moment while Zack looked at them both, then Cloud spoke first.

«We don’t know,» he said. «He wasn’t where we had scheduled to meet, and we tried to find him at his place but no one’s home. Not even his grandma or sister.»

«And no signs of violence.» Isa put the spade down and leaned on it. «There’s been a battle last night in the square. We don’t exactly know what happened but people say people got hurt, and they were taken to Lord Ansem’s castle.»

«We _wanted_ to go and look for Lea…»

«But that’s out of the question, Cloud, especially for you if you want to work in the city watch.» Isa reprimanded the younger boy.

«But you and Lea do…»

Zack didn’t let him continue.

«I can check on the castle, guys, this argument has no point,» he intervened. «Anything that could have happened, if the city guards have been summoned, can’t be something that can be faced with a bat and a spade.»

He did not want to belittle the two boys’ efforts, but he didn’t want to put them in danger – not now Lea was nowhere to be found.

Cloud gave him a puppy-eyed look for a moment, as if he wanted to somehow convince him without speaking. Zack mentally cursed himself for promising Aerith to help him – the little mule was more than intentioned to be a hero, but he had not understood there was little he could do at his age to make a difference.

Just a moment. _Aerith_.

«But I do need you two to do me a favor. Get back into the borough and go to Aerith’s. Please, make sure she’s okay, tell her I’m back and I’m safe and in a single piece.»

«Can do. I know where she lives.» Cloud nodded. «Follow me, Isa.»

He almost took the older boy by the sleeve and sprinted off towards the streets that led to the residential district.

Zack stayed for a moment in the square, trying to find out what had happened by looking at the scene.

He didn’t want to tell Isa and Cloud, but he _had already seen_ such a devastation, and he didn’t like what he saw.

He had seen how Ventus had literally smashed some stones in the city of Thebes to blow monsters away, and Ventus. Was. A KID. Or at least, he didn’t have the physical build of a destroyer.

Zack had also seen the Coliseum and how it had been reduced after Terra and Aqua had won two tournaments on Olympus, and those two, who fought like Ventus but were definitely older and more skilled, had sent sand from the foundations of the stadium up to the bloody nosebleeds!

… or something like that.

Whatever had happened, it had had to be something that involved someone as tough as them… and with their same weapons.

His look stopped on a patch of the square where the stones had been blown away from their placement. The mortar underneath them had crumbled to dust, and there were visible some familiar spiral patterns, traced by what looked like the tip of a shoe.

_A young woman, surrounded by a cerulean aura, pirouetting on the arena almost like it was an ice rink, keeping her blade up high and hurling a graceful and deadly magical attack…_

Aqua. _Aqua had been there_.

Zack recognized those footprints, recognized the shoes that had left them.

«Daaaaamn!» he burst out, breaking into a run towards the castle gates. He wasn’t worried only about Lea, not anymore – what had happened in the square?

He raced across the garden, almost running into little Ienzo who was examining burns in the lawn, doubtlessly left by some monster – Zack knew them so well he recognized the marks they left –, ran up the staircase skipping every other step, and almost didn’t stop in front of Dilan and Aeleus.

«Zack Fair of the city watch!» He panted. «I’ve been summoned home by Captain Sephiroth!»

The two recognized him almost immediately and had no trouble with letting him inside, and Zack sprinted in the hallways. He didn’t know what held him back from screaming Aqua’s name… then he hit something and found a little girl, who had just fallen on her backside, in front of him.

_What was Kairi doing there?_

«Maaan… Kairi, I’m so sorry… I really am… didn’t see you!» Zack picked her up and looked up and down in the hallway, ensuring no one had seen his momentous gaffe.

«It’s nothing,» the girl replied. Her lip was shaking a little, but she was visibly trying to stay stoic. Zack put her back down.

«What are you doing here?» He crouched to look in her eyes. «Not a place for kids.»

«The two big guys out there said it, too, but then they let me and Lea in anyway.» Kairi rocked back and forth on her feet.

«Is Lea here too?» Zack immediately asked.

Kairi nodded. «They’ve found a little girl in the square, and they needed someone who could brother.»

From Zack’s throat came a noise that sounded like an embarrassing hybrid between a laugh and a sigh of relief. Of all places in which Lea could have ended up… there he was, babysitting at Ansem’s castle.

«What happened yesterday night, Kairi?»

«I don’t know.» Kairi span a little on the spot, her hands clasped behind her back. Then she walked towards one of the doors and pushed it, revealing Lea trying to calm down a child about one year old, sitting in a makeshift crib with a visible pout on her face.

«Zack! Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!» Lea was visibly pleased by his presence. «Shroom here keeps crying for her parents. She hardly lets herself get touched!»

«And Kairi told me _you could brother_ …» Zack approached him with a smirk, then he turned serious. «Lea, do you happen to know what happened?»

The boy shrugged.

«Wish I knew too. I talked to Angeal as soon as I got here. Now I think about it, I’m not surprised you got here just a couple of hours later… this story stinks like a skunk. Braig found the girl and a man in the center of the square. Angeal came back here minutes ago, and looks like the man’s name is Xehanort, but he couldn’t tell me anything about Shroom, apart from the fact he was told she was clutching what looked like armor pieces… he didn’t saw them, by the way.»

«I checked the square.» Zack leaned against a wall. «You said the man was called Xehanort, right? I knew the other fighter’s name, probably. And maybe I know a way to prove I’m right.»

_«For how you’re talking about Terra…» Aqua concealed a laugh with a hand. «I think only Ventus and Shiro would talk about him like that.»_

_Zack gave her a wide grin and kept doing squats._

_«I do know Ventus. Now who’s Shiro?»_

_Aqua pulled a picture from a pocket concealed in her sashes. Zack recognized Ventus, in a green t-shirt and a pair of swim trunks, and a little girl, probably one year old, floating in a rubber ring in what looked like a lake._

_Ventus was holding her from behind, to prevent her from floating away with the current._

_«Have you met Ven? Do you really know this boy?»_

_Zack nodded, then pointed at the child._

_«I suppose this is Shiro, then.»_

«I suppose you’re Shiro, then.»

She was identical to the infant in the picture, apart from several locks of hair that seemed to have been cut without caring at all.

« _Shiro_?» Lea pulled a face. «She _was_ trying to tell me something, but she just can’t roll her Rs!»

The toddler pointed at herself.

« _Fhe-wo_!» she squeaked in an exasperated tone.

«All right, all right!» Lea raised his arms in surrender. « _Got it memorized_ , Shroom.»

* * *

Lately, the sky above the islands was often dotted by shooting stars, and Sora and Riku did their best not to miss a single one.

Sometimes Sora tried to push Riku aside, in the attempt to see the stars first so he could make a wish. But after two consecutive nights of shiny tails, Riku almost seemed to have lost enthuxiasm.

«Some old men in town say it’s a bad sign,» he said, looking at the sky. «They say that it’s the warning…»

«… of a forthcoming disaster or a war.» Sora mumbled without noticing, turning serious without really wanting to.

He took both hands to his mouth. _What had just happened?_

It wasn’t something he had wanted to say!

«Since when you know what fort-coming disgrace means?» Riku raised an eyebrow and glared at him.

«I don’t!» Sora felt his cheeks growing warm. He folded his arms behind his head in a gesture that almost seemed instinctive to him. «Why, do you know?»

«It means something’s coming here. Something ugly.» The older boy made a few steps forward and picked up some gravel. «Ugly like the sky falling on us!»

When his left fist was full of little stones, Riku put his right hand on the wooden sword he always carried on his belt.

«One day I’ll be strong like the heroes.» He gave Sora a smile, showing the pebbles in his hand. «So when stars fall from the sky I’ll send them right back where they come from!»

He tossed up the gravel with his hand, then he started beating them back with the sword, one after another, far away from them. One was too far… he wouldn’t have reached it in time… Sora drew his own toy sword and dealt the last hit, making even the last pebble bounce far away.

«Remember what the lady said?» Sora stopped next to Riku. «I gotta stay close to you or you’re toast!»

Riku stayed still and silent as he looked in Sora’s eyes.

Sora put the sword back on his belt and gave him his warmest smile.

«One day they’ll tell new stories in town.» He put a hand on his shoulder. «They’ll tell about the great powerful heroes who put back the stars up in the sky. Together because they’re the best of friends. And they’ll say “ _once upon a time there was a hero, I mean there were two heroes, and their names were Riku and Sora_ ” and we’ll be there to listen and all the people will look at us.»

With every word Sora spoke, Riku’s face got redder and redder.

«But I don’t wanna end up in a story…» he said, hunching his shoulders. «I… just wanna put the stars back on…»

«Well that’s what heroes do.» Sora seized Riku’s shoulder with the arm with which he was already touching him and squeezed him hard.

Riku caught him with his own arm from under Sora’s armpits, and lifted him up in the air for a moments.

« _Come on_ , Sora, you’re such a featherweight and you think you’re a hero!» Riku chuckled, then he let him go and lifted him up again, with both arms this time, trying to haul his younger friend up on his shoulders. Sora tried to wriggle free by struggling with all his strength, and before they could notice they both ended up lying on the ground.

«We _both_ are featherweights!» Sora, who had landed with his belly right on Riku’s back, raised his head and burst into laughter.

«Feather? _Me_?» Riku shoved Sora away, sat up and raised his arms. «Then now comes the _tickle_!»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lea knows Mary Poppins because it's probably a world in a book, like Winnie The Pooh. Draw your conclusions. ;) I'm actually planning to write a short story about it because it would be a cute story to tell.
> 
> The idea to mention Kevin came to me after a day at a con in which I was Ventus, a friend of mine was cosplaying teenage Lea with a sea-salt ice cream prop, and there was a Russell cosplayer with an amazing Kevin puppet that actually gobbled up Lea's ice cream during the pictures we took. I just couldn't stop laughing.
> 
> Kairi's line about "how can someone lose an eye?" actually comes from an argument between me, my cousin, and my grandma, who kept saying "don't drop stuff from the balcony, someone could lose an eye!" and I was all like "how can someone lose an eye, does it fall off their faces?". Kids sometimes can say really stupid stuff, and I'm no exception.
> 
> \- BNF


	4. Quis Custodisset Ipsos Custodes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the KH3 Secret Reports. You've been warned.
> 
> If you want feels, listen to Peter Gabriel's "Heroes" during Zack's POV near the end.

After the major screw-up of the first day, Lea found out that taking care of little Shiro was getting easier.

Knowing her name was already a huge step ahead, and he also was reassured by Zack knowing who her parents were and promising he would have looked for them as soon as he could.

The evening of the first day, as soon as he had gotten home, Lea had also started looking for Kairi’s old clothes from when she had been Shiro’s age (some had even been HIS) to take them to the castle the morning after.

It was still _totally weird_ to see Dilan and Aeleus letting him through, but it was even weirder, when he got in the child’s room holding Kairi’s hand and carrying a bag full of folded clothes, that Shiro was not alone.

There was a man in the room – someone Lea had never seen before – but he had her same white hair and visibly looked like the child. He was sitting on the bed, right next to her, and he seemed to be badly murmuring a lullaby.

« _... you make me happy when skies are gray…_ _you’ll never know, dear… how much I love you… please don’t take my sunshine away…_ »

Lea stayed still in the doorway, holding Kairi so she wouldn’t move, quietly.

«Good… morning…» he murmured when the man had finished singing. Shiro was still clapping and giggling.

Looking at the man’s face, Lea had to jump to the conclusion that if he really was the girl’s father, he had had to be a teen dad. He didn’t look much older than him, and he looked tired and confused.

«Uhm, the name is Lea. I’m Shiro’s sitter.» Lea rubbed a foot on the floor. «This is my little sister Kairi. I have to take her with me or _I would_ need to pay for a sitter myself. Got it memorized?»

The yellowish gaze of the man fixed itself first on him, then on Kairi, then the man stood up and trod out of the room, pressing a hand on his temple and almost pushing Lea aside.

The boy let Kairi go and sat on the bed next to Shiro.

«I bet your ma is the sociable one, isn’t she, Shroom?»

«Lea, Grandma says you gotta stop being _snerky_!» Kairi almost marched to him.

Shiro surely could not know that Kairi had said “snarky” totally wrong, and it was certain she didn’t even know the reason for the scolding, but she looked at the older girl and started laughing.

«Okay, you two have ganged up on me.» Lea stood up and opened the bag. «Can you girls forgive me now? Now we get into some clean clothes and we go playing in the garden.»

He pulled a pack of sidewalk chalks from the bag.

«Look at what I’ve got, Kai.»

One look at the colored sticks and Kairi’s frown melted, and she almost tore them from Lea’s hand before running around the room jumping for joy.

The boy’s plan was rather simple: as much as Shiro could prove to be a handful, considering she was in a bad mood most of the time, if he led the girls to play just outside the castle, where the civilians _were_ still allowed, no Dilan and no Aeleus would have had anything to object if Isa, Cloud and Aerith would have joined Lea in the garden. And for how much Kairi loved drawing with sidewalk chalk, Lea knew he had her in the palm of his hand.

While Kairi was busy examining the box of chalks and checking which colors it contained, Lea pulled one of the dresses out of the bag, took a clean diaper from a cabinet in the room, changed Shiro’s diaper (what had the Lord’s men fed her? _Gross_.) and changed her into clean clothes.

Throwing the dirty diaper away, Lea started thinking about what to do with it, like a stink bomb for Braig, but he aborted the idea immediately. Isa and the others were likely awaiting outside, and he didn’t want to waste all of his summer in the only zone in the castle he was allowed to visit.

He picked Shiro up with an arm, took Kairi’s hand, and went to the garden.

As soon as they were outside, Kairi let go of his hand, opened the chalk box, and started drawing lines, a hopscotch, and various stick figures she gradually explained to be herself, Lea, then Shiro and “the lady knight who had fought all the monsters”.

Lea let Shiro on the ground, asking himself whether Kairi would have allowed her to use her old tricycle, and took a quick look at the staircase, hoping to see Isa arrive soon, maybe even carrying ice-cream.

What he wouldn’t have given for…

 _Someone was walking up the stairs_. But it wasn’t kids.

Lea instinctively sprinted to Kairi and Shiro, standing close to the former and taking the latter’s arm, but he relaxed when he saw the dark uniforms of the guard corps that patrolled the city.

And he would have recognized the silver hair, the dominant look, and the long sword of Captain Sephiroth even at midnight. If there was someone in front of whom he trusted two little kids to be fine, it was those men.

Dilan and Aeleus, though, seemed to beg to differ. Dilan marched to them, holding his spear, almost as if he wanted to deny them passage.

«The city guards have no business here, Sephiroth.»

Another city guard officer, that Zack had once pointed out to Lea as Genesis, took a step forward and stood on the captain’s side.

«And _castle_ guards have no business in the _city_.» Genesis replied. «How comes it was one of you who cleaned up the mess in the square? Your jurisdiction is _this castle_ and the people who occupy it. And yet Braig was there, taking care of the survivors, almost as if _he knew they would show up over there_.»

Dilan almost flinched, but he immediately got a grip. «Since when a citizen of the Garden, _one of Lord Ansem’s guards_ , has to respond to the city guards?»

The other two city guards were familiar faces for Lea. One of them was Angeal, and the other Zack himself, and both gave him a conspiratorial look. Zack was holding a chubby, shabby stuffed Moogle under an arm, leaving Lea wondering why.

«Okay, let’s not start a fight where children are watching.» Angeal stepped in between Sephiroth and Genesis. «We only need to talk. And Zack maybe has information on Shiro – where’s she from, and her family.»

«I _also_ have Mr. Kupo here.» Zack grinned nervously.

He made a few steps towards Shiro.

«Hey, little one.» He crouched down in front of her. «This is Mr. Kupo and he’s an old friend of mine. Just… now I’m working with the guards he’s all alone at home all day. Could you be his buddy for me?»

He held out the Moogle doll to Shiro.

For a moment, Shiro gave Zack a suspicious look, then she reached out and squeezed Mr. Kupo’s nose.

«Uh…» She squeaked.

Zack grinned from ear to ear and put Mr. Kupo in her arms.

«Remember, girl, you do have my trust. I’m giving you an important assignment. This old grump is very dear to me and I really don’t want him to feel lonely.»

Probably, Shiro had not understood a word of what Zack was saying, but she had understood the tone, and when the boy put the plush in her hands, she hugged it hard with all the affection a child that age could have with a new buddy.

«We have to go, Zack.» Angeal urged him to join him.

«Uhm, copy that!» Zack swung his arms and stood up, then he followed his mentor towards the castle door. He waved his hand at Lea and Kairi and vanished, then he peeked out of the door again.

«I know Cloud, Aerith and Isa are coming here with a supply of ice-cream. I know because _I_ paid Mr. McDuck. _Just wait for me_!»

* * *

_A Secret Report_

_Everything proceeds just as planned._

_Xehanort is a blank slate under my control. The child has been brought here and we only have to wait for her destiny to fulfill._

_It’s in the kiddo’s blood, after all. The Keyblade did choose her, maybe from the day of her birth, or maybe even before._

_I doubt Xehanort will remember the role of father covered by the boy who sired her – but the old librarian’s grandson seems to have conquered her trust enough to allow me to keep the kid away from her papa._

_All I have to do is make sure the brat is well taken care of once summer is over – I really don’t want to know what would the doddering old lady do, should we take her precious little angel away from his schooling._

_And there’s another threat to the plan. Zack, the guards’ apprentice._

_I don’t know how could have he come to know it all, but he knows too many things he should not. This time Lord Ansem was not available, locked up in the labs taking care of Xehanort, and it was Even who had to listen to the annoying delusions of that meddling punk._

_If he saw Xehanort, if he talked to Ansem, the old coot’s plans would be thwarted before they even started._

_I need to silence him somehow. Him, and that pathetic excuse for a police force that call themselves the city guards._

_It’s time for them to learn what happens when people play heroes._

* * *

Fall seemed to arrive earlier that year.

Radiant Garden at sunrise had something poetic to it, and as Isa, after leaving Bolt in his backyard, walked on his way to school through the still silent city, could not help thinking it was about time, too.

He didn’t mind summer, but he had somewhat missed the routine of school days, especially now his friend Lea had had much of his time taken by the job his grandmother had bestowed on him.

The boy shrugged in the coat of his uniform and hastened his step. He really didn’t want to be late on the first day of school – not in his position.

There were very few students in front of the gates, mostly seniors and some from his own class. Isa and Lea, along with Zack, were about to start their junior year.

«Good morning!» Zack arrived, greeting him happily despite his tired look. Aerith was with him, and they were holding hands.

«Hello, Isa!» Aerith, wearing her brand new uniform and a name tag on her jacket, almost seemed to be dragging her boyfriend. She noticed almost immediately the recent add to Isa’s school uniform. «Hall monitor? Wow, that’s great!»

Isa gave a shrug and grinned. When he had received the call a few days before it had been a pleasant surprise.

He had collected the red sash that marked him as a member of the students’ patrol without mentioning it to anyone but his parents, and now his friends would have come to know about it, it was time to face the embarrass.

«Whoa, just don’t put me in detention, man. It would be _so_ awkward if a hall monitor caught a city guard!» Zack grinned nervously.

«Well, just don’t get caught, Zack.» Isa didn’t flinch.

«Have you guys seen Cloud?» Zack asked. «I was at his place a couple days ago, he was about to freak out… I hope he’s okay.»

«He told me he’d walk to school with Tifa – that would be his next door neighbor.» Aerith explained. «… why did you go visit, Zack?»

They both stayed silent for a moment, Aerith glaring at her boyfriend.

«Zack _, you didn’t have to_.»

Zack just chuckled and ran a hand through his hair.

«Why not?» He replied. «Come on, Aerith, you told me yourself that he and his momma aren’t exactly doing too well. That was the least I could do!»

«What did he do?» Isa asked Aerith in an inquisitive tone.

«Nothing that extraordinary.» Zack intervened. «I left him my old school uniform, the one I outgrew. Back to school shopping isn’t exactly cheap.»

Aerith was about to reply, but she stayed quiet when she noticed more students were coming. Cloud was among them, along with a raven-haired girl whom Isa recognized as his friend from the baseball junior high team. For some reason, she had managed to obtain the trousers from the boys’ uniform instead of the pleated skirt she was supposed to be wearing.

The sleeves and the trousers of Cloud’s uniform were slightly rolled up, and the shirt and the jacket hung a bit off his shoulders, but the boy was grinning. His tie was not done.

«Hey, Spiky!» Zack almost ran to him. «You ready? You scared?»

«Hi, Zack.» Cloud answered in a tone slightly higher than a murmur. «Can you… give me a hand with this?» He pointed at his own tie.

«Uhm…» Zack suddenly blushed. «Oi, Isa, you’re the guard here and now. Can you help Cloud with his tie?»

«Excuse me, can’t big man on campus tie a tie?» Cloud’s friend, whom the name tag identified as “Tifa”, gave Zack an intimidating scowl.

«My old man ties it on my first day, and then I just loosen it and tighten it again every day after that.» Zack grinned guiltily.

«And you’re even _smiling_ …» Tifa rolled her eyes in annoyance, while Isa started fixing Cloud’s tie. Things like that were almost second nature to him – his father worked for the Radiant Garden court as a magistrate, and Isa had been watching him dressing up and tying his own ties _since he could remember_.

«Come on, Tifa, not everyone’s dad has the time or the skills to do that every day.» Zack took a breath. «My dad’s not too good either, but then again, Isa’s old man is a justice, mine is a gardener.»

«Talking about families.» Tifa hinted at a smirk. «Is it true that Professor Braska, the history teacher… did he really marry a fairy?»

Isa finished tying Cloud’s tie and gave Tifa a scowl.

«Of all the questions you might ask about him, you go for _that_?» He asked her. «I would worry much more about how meticulous he can be with dates and events.»

Students kept on arriving. Isa led Cloud and Tifa in the corner of the courtyard where freshmen were gathering. After them and Aerith arrived more – a chestnut-haired boy whose nametag read “Squall”, then Cecil and Claire from Cloud’s old baseball team, and so many more new names that, Isa realized with not little dejection, he would have had to get memorized.

 _And Lea was so effing late_.

«Where did you leave Cheese?» Zack raised an eyebrow. «Do you think old stinky Braig is still making him work at the castle?»

«Oh, I doubt it. Lea’s grandma would chew him out.» Isa shook his head. «I mean, Lea already has his hands full with Kairi, and she’s his sister, his grandma wouldn’t want him to miss school for another child who isn’t even family. »

Wait a moment.

_Of course, Kairi!_

Isa would have kicked himself. It was the first day of school, and it was _for everyone._ Including a certain little one that, on that day, would have begun _kindergarten_.

It was then, indeed, as the bell that decreed the doors to be opened rang, that Lea, with the collar of his shirt unbuttoned, the tie hanging loose from his neck, and out of breath after running, stopped in front of them with his hands on his knees.

And, in front of him, Isa simply smiled, helped him straighten himself, and fixed his shirt. There was no way he could have convinced him to tie his tie, it was already enough that he wasn’t using it as a headband.

Another year was about to start, and as he entered school along with his friends, with a new responsibility worn over his uniform, and on his face one of his rare smiles, Isa couldn’t help thinking it was about time.

* * *

After the monster invasion of the previous summer, the battle in the square, and the appearance of Xehanort and baby Shiro, the situation in Radiant Garden looked tranquil once again.

Halloween and Christmas passed without anything worth noticing, if one didn’t count Kairi hiding under the bed because Isa’s werewolf mask had frightened her.

Santa Claus visited every home in the city, and Cloud was more than happy when he saw under his small tree some brand new baseball gear. He tried out for the high school team as soon as the holidays were over, and also thanks to some practice in his backyard with Zack, he managed to obtain a jersey.

Lately, the city guards didn’t seem to have much on their hands: in those days they were mostly after a slimy blimp of a man, with a stinky cigar perennially in his mouth, whom had been signaled to be stalking just outside the junior high with intentions that left little room for doubts.

Cloud had proposed to Zack to act as live bait, but it had been days his friend refused his offer for help.

«I know you wanna help, Spiky, but I wouldn’t forgive myself is something happened to you and I was to blame.» Zack passed Cloud the ball and waited for him to throw.

«Happen to me?» Cloud shrugged, then he took the ball from his mitt and threw it back to Zack. «What could he do to me? It wouldn’t be too hard. I could still pass off as a little girl if I try really hard. I’d wait for the slimy git to put his hand to his pants… and _I’ll rip ‘em off_.»

He wasn’t talking about the old lecher’s pants.

«No way, Cloud, I can’t let you do this. You’re…» Zack caught the ball in midair and dropped it at his feet.

«Too tiny? Too weak? Come on, Zack, just trust me. I mean, _seriously_!» Cloud took off his mitt and was about to throw it, but he stopped all of a sudden when Zack’s trousers pocket emitted a loud ring.

«Angeal? Yeah, I’m at Cloud’s, I slept over. I’m fine.» The older boy took his cell phone to his ear and immediately answered the call. Despite how calm he was at the beginning, maybe even bored, a moment later his eyes were wide open and he became pale as a ghost. «What? _Genesis_? Like, Angeal, _for real_?»

He stayed silent for a few moments, with Angeal’s muffled voice explaining him something on the other side of the call.

«It’s… okay. See you at the castle, yeah, I’ll be there as soon as possible, no, I don’t have the sword, should I go home and get it? Okay… okay.»

He hung up and stared at the screen for a while, then he looked up at Cloud, visibly scared.

«It’s Genesis… he’s gone.»

* * *

«Guys, I’m sorry for dragging you into all this, but someone who’s not me has to listen and to know.» Zack took a seat on the squeaky couch in Lea’s living room and folded his arms.

They had just gotten out of school, and Lea’s house was the only empty safe place – his grandma was at work and Kairi was, luckily, at a play date.

Along with Lea and Zack there were Isa, Aerith and Cloud, and they all still wore their school uniform, even if Isa had taken off his hall monitor sash.

«Is this about last Saturday’s call?» Cloud, who sat next to him, was the first to speak. «You could have told us earlier.»

«Even walls have eyes and ears, Cloud, I don’t want anyone at school to hear us.» Zack stared at his hands, laid on his knees. «You… you are _my friends_. It’s you guys I do really trust, outside of Angeal and the city guards.»

For the first time in months, Lea felt a quaver in Zack’s voice. This time, he was _really worried_.

«First things first, whoever this _Xehanort_ may be…» Zack frowned. «Shiro ain’t no daughter of his.»

«Wait, what?» Lea didn’t let Zack finish. «I mean, man, I’ve seen him. He does look like her. And when he sang her a lullaby, she was smiling and clapping.»

«Lea, that could have simply been because the tune was familiar to her.» Isa pointed out. «Zack… do you have any way to prove what you’re saying?»

Zack nodded.

«I’ve met Shiro’s family last year. Her _real_ family. Last summer, while I was off training in another world.» He explained. «Terra and Aqua. Terra, her dad, is about… twenty, he’s got brown hair and blue eyes. He’s about as tall as Aeleus, though he’s not as muscular. Aqua’s got blue hair, like Isa here, she should be about eighteen years old, and I’m rather certain she’s been here, in Radiant Garden, at least once. They both wear straps over their clothes, crossed to form an X, and wore some kind of armor on their arms when I met them.»

Hearing the description of the X straps, Lea crossed his eyes with Isa, and immediately noticed his best friend was staring at him too.

«Ventus!» Isa spoke first.

«Yeah, Ven…» Lea did his best not to look like the slow one of the duo.

Zack looked like he had just swallowed a whole lemon.

«A boy named Ventus, also known as Ven?» He asked them. «Short stuff, fast as lighting, blond hair and deadliest snarker ever? Also, he carries a sword that looks like a key?»

« _And_ he wears two black straps over his clothes, crossed to form an X.» Isa finished. «Yeah, Zack, we know him. He was here last summer.»

«So he knows this place.» Zack scratched his chin and rubbed a foot on the floor. «Y’all, I don’t want to beat around the bush, but Shiro’s mother, Aqua… I know she’s been in the square and I know she _fought_ there the night of the fight. I’ve seen her _footprints_. The city guards were on alert… Genesis, Sephiroth and Angeal know what I told them, and were trying to solve the case. _Now Genesis is gone_. I’ve talked to the others, and we were trying to decide what to do… I didn’t know if somehow I could lead Terra here… or even if he’s still around somewhere… but if you tell me that Ventus knows about this place, there’s one more hope for us.»

He stood up.

«I know of a place where Ventus promised would return, but I’d have to go there and ask if anyone has seen him. In the meantime… Angeal told me that just before vanishing, Genesis had found a girl in the square. In the _same spot_ where I found Aqua’s footprints.»

He stayed silent for a few moments, until Aerith looked at him and solved with her words the riddle Zack had just hinted at.

«Braig! Do you think it was him again?» she asked him.

«I wish I was bigger…» This time, it was Cloud who had jumped to his feet, with his fists clenched. «A lump was too little, I had to smash his ugly skull…»

«Easy, Cloud, calm down.» Zack put a hand on his shoulder. «Hear me out now, because I’m going to need your help. Especially while I’ll be out there looking for Ven. Cloud and Aerith, I need you two to be my eyes in town. We have to find out what happened to Genesis. If Braig really did it. Lea and Isa, you two can sneak into the castle somehow, right? Angeal and Sephiroth do not have access to several zones in there… and you two are the only other people I know who know the place. You could use Shiro’s excuse or use a diversion…»

«… I could ask Tifa, Cecil and Squall from the baseball team. A nice home run and we could smash a window.» Cloud intervened with a smirk.

«Score for Cloud.» Zack gave him a pat on his back.

In theory, Lea found himself thinking, Zack’s plan was rather simple. The friends Cloud had mentioned were literally _snipers_ in a batter’s box, and it would have been a piece of cake, for them, to shoot a hole in a window.

Technically, they could have even think up other ploys for a diversion, each more unlikely than the other. Lea could have entered the castle _simply asking Ansem’s guards to see Shiro_ , who still was terribly fond of him despite having another babysitter while he was at school, and every now and then, according to Grandma, still screamed for him to stay with her. Kairi could have run up to the doors claiming to have seen monsters.

« _Or_ you guys could pay a little more attention during classes.» Isa intervened. «Zack, do you remember that during junior year we have to sign for an internship? Oh, wait, you’re already in the guards.»

«Please, Isa, don’t mention that. Grandma already wants me to send the paperwork to the library.» Lea rolled his eyes. «And the fire brigade already sent me two or three letters because of Mom and Dad.»

«Neither library nor fire corps, Lea. We’re shooting higher.» Isa gave him a smirk. «Ansem the Wise’s laboratory?»

Lea shook his head.

«Isa _, no_.»

To work as a scholar in that castle wasn’t Lea’s dream career. At all. For how much he wanted to know what hid in that maze of a palace, he did not want to do it as a scientist.

He wanted to become… the hero of the city. Like his father and mother had been, before a disaster in the underground had taken their lives.

«I don’t wanna waste my chance… you understand me?» He stared at his best friend. «I beg you… we have other ways… let’s count on them.»

* * *

Lea walked the hallways with a smirk on his face. Just like he had thought, Dilan and Aeleus hadn’t had the slightest objection when he had stated he wanted to see Shiro.

The governess who took care of her while he was at school or studying was rather competent, Grandma had told him, but Shiro kept _wanting to see him_ and sometimes she would even cry. There had been many times during the previous months in which Lea, after finishing his homework or in the weekends, had visited Shiro and taken her out to play in the gardens along with his friends.

The little girl, who according to Even had surely turned two during the winter, always carried Mr. Kupo everywhere she went, still wore Kairi’s and Lea’s hand-me-downs, and had learned to ride the siblings’ old red tricycle, keeping the Moogle doll in the front basket.

The boy opened the door and scanned the room. Where once there had been a bed with pillows under the fitted sheets now there was a toddler bed. The floor was covered in colored carpet, which almost vanished under building blocks.

Shiro was busy stacking blocks to build a tower, with Mr. Kupo “sitting” next to her, but she immediately looked up as she saw the door being opened.

«Bro!» the little one stood up and ran to Lea, knocking away several blocks and clutching tight his knees.

«Here we go again!» Lea looked up to the ceiling. «Shiro, I did tell you my name…»

« _Lea, Lea, L-E-A, got it memowized? If you wemembaw I’ll give you a cookie._ » Shiro parroted him. She couldn’t say too many sentences, but she had definitely _memorized_ those two.

From outside came the noise of broken glass. It seemed Cloud’s plan was working.

At that point, the plan was simple. Or at least, it apparently was.

«Do you want to play a game, Shiro?» Lea crouched to her level. «Now we play the game of silence. We’re going to take a walk in the castle and we have to stay _quiet as the fish_ , because if they hear us we lost and we have to get back to square one.»

«Shush?» Shiro peeped.

«Yeah, shush.» Lea pressed a finger on his lips. «Hey, know what? Isa is playing too!»

Isa _was not_ too happy about the game, though.

«Why did you bring her along?» he hissed when he saw them coming.

«Because people know I’m with her.» Lea replied in an equally low voice, while Shiro, obeying the rule of silence, waved Isa hello. «This is her home, technically she could be anywhere.»

«What if Braig is dangerous like they say…?»

«Shiro here is the queen of tattletales. I can assure you that if she finds out something wrong, she’ll find a way to say it.»

«How is this supposed to ease my nerves?»

Isa rolled his eyes, but he said nothing more and started exploring the maze of corridors that led to the laboratories. He kept dragging his right hand on the right side of the hallways, never taking his hand off the wall, following what Lea recognized as his “infallible trick to never get lost in a maze”.

It was quiet – too quiet.

They were almost arrived to what they remembered as the computer room, through whose door they could hear Lord Ansem’s voice debating with someone with a squeaky, nasal voice whom the scholar king addressed as Mickey.

Shiro started fussing, and Lea was quick to cover her mouth with a hand, then Isa pointed to another hallway and a flight of stairs that went down, and the three kids vanished that way.

The underground castle was almost spooky. There was less light compared to the upper corridors, and after a pair of turns, the hand Isa was dragging on the wall started feeling doors with bars.

«Chalk…» A voice wheezed from behind one of the doors when Isa passed by it.

The boy held back a scream and flinched, trying to see who was held behind those bars.

Isa’s gaze focused on something, and he immediately paled and bit his own fist.

Lea was quick to get by his side and try to see who was in the cell.

He had his suspicions. _He hoped they were wrong._

They weren’t.

Sitting on the floor of the cell, with his back laying against the wall, was Officer Genesis of the city guards.

«What happened to you, Sir?» Isa whispered. «You’re a public officer… they have no right!»

«Perceptive as always, the magistrate’s boy.» Genesis raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, cracks were spreading on his face and neck, and his ginger hair had started going unnaturally grey. « _Run_. Go away.»

«Zack said you found a girl in the square!» Isa insisted. «Where did they take her? Did you see?»

«It was Braig, wasn’t he?» Lea added.

«Ugwy!» In Lea’s arms, Shiro mumbled clenching her little fists.

Genesis sat upright.

«It’s worse than we feared.» Behind his back there was some kind of dark shadow. «Braig. Xehanort. It’s not only Lord Ansem’s castle they want. It’s the whole kingdom… the whole world… and the ones beyond this.»

«We have to do something…» Lea murmured.

«What have they _done_ to you?» Isa hissed again.

Genesis shook his head, slouching against the wall again.

«Don’t you boys get into this mess. _Go away_.»

A few black feathers flew inside the cell.

«You said this whole world is in danger…» Lea insisted. «The girl you found in the square, the one you were trying to rescue. Where is she?»

Genesis burst into a laughter, a deranged and mirthless sound, the laughter of a madman.

Lea regretted taking Shiro along. The girl _seemed_ to be tranquil, but she didn’t look like she was having fun at all.

At least until…

«Giwl!»

Shiro was pointing to one of the doors at the end of the hallway, lit by a skylight, as if it was some kind of theatrical spotlight.

There was a girl behind the bars.

She looked slightly younger than Lea and Isa, maybe a little older than Aerith, but she had her same wise look.

Leaving Genesis to his delusion, the two boys, Lea still holding Shiro, ran to the girl’s cell. She wore pastel garments covered in dust and dirt, with some tears in them, she had golden hair tied back behind her head, and she looked visibly lost.

«Hello…» Lea was the first who tried to interact.

The girl’s answer, the same, identical word, was only loud enough to be heard.

«I’m Lea, and these are Shiro and Isa.» Lea whispered. «Got it memorized?»

The girl stayed still and silent, moving only her eyes, which went first to the teenage boys, then to the toddler.

«Giwl?» Shiro commented.

«I think she wants to know your name.» Isa tried to interpret. «She did that with me too, last summer. First thing she told me was “boy?”.»

« _Oh_ …» The girl murmured, then she looked down at the floor.

_Who was she? Why was she imprisoned here? She had no answers for us. Had no memories at all. She was an enigma, but I knew I wanted to help her._

_And so we continued our infiltrations, most of them stopped short at the castle gates. When we did manage our way inside, we spoke with her. That was all the comfort two children like us could offer. But Lea had other ideas. He was determined to free her._

_Zack came back from Olympus without any news about Ventus, but it was us who had to bear him bad news: during a spring afternoon in which a thunderstorm had completely obscured the skies, Angeal had been found lifeless in the Purification Facility below the outer gardens._

Zack was the last to arrive that Saturday morning. The never-ending storms of the previous days had given way to mere rain, but the sky was still grey. The boy was drenched to the bone, and was dripping water from his boots, his hair, and the heavy sword that had been strapped to his back – the sword that had belonged to his mentor.

«Do you need a towel?» Isa’s father asked him as he opened the door.

«No, no thanks, Your Honor, it’s nothing…» Zack tried to shake the rain off his hair and removed the sword from his back, laying it against a wall in the entrance.

«First, call me Ilyas, I already told you. Second, you’d better get dry instead. This city doesn’t need guards with a nasty cold.» The magistrate insisted and shoved a towel in his hands. Zack would have wanted to reply further, but something heavy and hairy jumped on his putting paws on his shoulders and licking his face.

«Yeah, Bolt, love you too, goodest boy.»

In different circumstances, Zack would have thrown the towel aside and would have started immediately tickling Isa’s big puppy, but playing was the last thing he felt like doing in that moment.

He felt _empty._

«The others are waiting in the kitchen. Isa made some hot chocolate.» Ilyas led Zack to one of the rooms. Around the small kitchen table were already seated Isa, Lea and Cloud (what was Cloud doing there?), each with a steaming cup in front of them. Both Lea’s and Cloud’s hair was more limp than usual, definitely courtesy of the bad weather. They all were barefoot.

«Now, Isa, can I stay tranquil and trust you?» The justice stood in the doorway. Zack noticed he was holding a coat.

«No problem at all, Pa.» Isa, apparently unmoved, shook his head. «Do you know when is Ma coming home?»

His question seemed absolutely normal, but Zack managed to read between the lines. Isa was asking his father _how much time they would have had on their own_.

«I think your mother will be home by lunchtime.» Ilyas murmured. «But I’m afraid I may have to stay at the courthouse until nightfall. This is a _bad situation_ , really.»

He put on his coat and left the room.

«You boys can rest easy, though. I’ve already seen situations this bad, and _I can assure you_ , the culprit will be found.» He brought himself to the door, as if he had forgotten to say something. «The Garden can still rest easy. Heroes are still around.»

He clenched a fist, but he grinned, to encourage them. Isa looked at him and gave him a sad grin, then he passed Zack a cup of hot chocolate and gestured him to sit down.

Some moments later, when they could hear the sound of a closing door, and Bolt the White Shepherd trotted in the kitchen and started staring at the teenagers with a tearjerker begging look, Isa threw himself on a chair, made a bitter grin and addressed his friends: «Gentlemen, _I open this meeting_.»

«I’m to blame for Angeal’s death.» Zack immediately said. «I told him where to find the girl. I wanted him to take her away.»

«Don’t talk like that, Zack. He _chose_ to listen to you.» Cloud looked up from his mug of chocolate. «He chose to try.»

«And I knew he would.» Zack took a seat next to Cloud.

The others remained silent, seemingly at a loss for words. Bolt laid his snout on Zack’s knees and started sniffing for his hands, trying to lick them.

«By the way, Cloud, what are you doing here? I told you that…» Zack tried to reproach his friend.

«We _all_ are in this mess, aren’t we?» Cloud replied with a frown. «Remember what Genesis told to Lea and Isa? It’s not just Lord Ansem’s castle. It’s the whole Radiant Garden. If Xehanort has evil plans and succeeds, we _all_ may kick the bucket. Kairi. Mom. Aerith. Tifa. The stray cat that tries to get into my house through the window. Zack, you can’t ask me to stay safe, because I _won’t_ in any case.»

Zack left his cup on the table and stared at his hands.

«Cloud, I can’t ask you this. You are…»

«Didn’t we already _have_ this talk?» Cloud jumped to his feet.

«… _my best friend_ , Cloud!» Zack stood up in turn. «I won’t ask you to jump straight into danger. I wouldn’t have the heart to do it.»

Cloud stayed still and silent, staring back at him.

«And you are _my_ best friend, Zack. I wouldn’t have the heart to let you do this alone.» He hinted at a grin. «I also found out that my neighbor, that old crazy guy who always yells at us when we throw the ball in his yard, has started building _spaceships_ with that strange gummy stuff that fell from the sky. He’s keeping one or two in a hangar outside the city.»

Zack would have wanted to reply, but he was at a loss for words. Maybe Braig had kept Cloud away from the guards because _he knew he would have been that sharp?_

«So, what’s the plan?» Lea emptied his cup in a gulp and asked.

«We have to act during the night, when they don’t expect it.» Zack sat down. «I’ve got Angeal’s keys, his mother left them to me before anyone could look for them. Cloud and I sneak in, Cloud will take care of Shiro and I’ll free the girl in the cells and Genesis. Lea and Isa… I think the cameras in the castle might recognize your faces, I’m clear and they don’t know Cloud, you two will raise the alarm. You’ll wait for us here… have a sleepover, anything, but for Shiro to be okay we need you, Lea, you’re the only one who keeps her calm. At least until we don’t find her family.»

«Oh, great.» Sarcasm was heavy in Lea’s voice. « _I am Mary Poppins, y’all._ »

Bolt went to Isa and leapt on his lap. The boy started stroking his dog’s head.

«I can’t believe we’re doing this.» He murmured. «Ma and Pa will die of fright if I vanish. And Bolt… what if he stops eating while I’m gone?»

«Isa, we’ll _all_ leave behind somebody.» Lea replied. «Cloud has his mother, I have Kairi and Grandma, Zack has Aerith and his parents…»

«Aerith’s coming with us.» Zack shook his head. «She’ll be waiting near Cloud’s lunatic neighbor’s place. I’ve… _ahem_ , slept at her place yesterday night.»

Nothing much had happened, but Zack had really needed a quiet place and a shoulder to cry on. Moreover, the situation was serious enough for Lea to crack no jokes at all, apart from the Mary Poppins one about himself.

«And then we go looking for Terra, Aqua and Ventus. _Together_.» Zack said. «Maybe they can help us, or maybe we can help them, but without a doubt they may know something about this Xehanort guy.»

He stood up, looking at his three friends – his three companions for that adventure.

Once Zack had thought he would have become a hero when a crowd would have applauded him. When the papers would have hailed him as the teen prodigy of the city. When he would have saved kittens from trees, children from criminals, when he would have put thieves behind the bars.

He would have never imagined that to be heroes implied to stay silent, keep secrets, do things that threatened to break his heart into tiny pieces.

But, maybe, he had understood what being a hero really meant…

Despite being the four of them against the world, Zack felt like he was doing the right thing.

_That morning was the last time we saw Zack and Cloud._

_They didn’t show up at the rendez-vous. Lea and I stayed up all night, and Aerith did the same._

_We didn’t find them at their houses the morning after, nor at school the following one. In the streets missing person manifests were hung – not only them, but even the last officer of the city guards, Captain Sephiroth._

_Lea was called by his grandma to keep an eye on Shiro, who seemed to have been terrorized by something. The girl in the dungeons and Genesis, instead, vanished without leaving traces of their presence._

_Something had happened that night, but what? Lea and I knew there was only one way to be certain._

_And so we stand before the castle gates today, not as trespassing children, but in order to become Ansem the Wise's newest apprentices._


	5. Destiny Into Motion

«Did ya hear? There’s a girl at the mayor’s house! They say she fell from the sky, ya!»

«Come _on_ , Wakka, your nose’s going to grow!»

«I’m serious, Lulu, I saw her!»

«… _fall from the sky_?»

Sora and Riku stared at the older boy’s classmates. Wakka was known in the whole first grade and more to believe any tall tale he was told – and to repeat it to the whole island out loud. It wasn’t the first time he started shouting out something highly unlikely.

It was “just” the first time Riku paid heed.

«If what you’re saying is true,» Riku intervened in the conversation. «Why isn’t she at school now? Kids have to go to school.»

«Well she could be sick.» Wakka dug a groove in the dirt with a foot. «Or maybe when she fell she broke an arm like it happened to Chappu and now she’s at the hospital.»

Sora stayed where he stood, his gaze fixed on the first-graders. _He_ would have started first grade the following school year, and it still seemed terribly far to him.

Kindergarten wasn’t too bad – he was in class with Wakka’s _little brother_ , who was far more quiet and tranquil, and Riku had sworn up and down that they weren’t allowed to nap after lunch in first grade, but Sora would have liked to spend more time with his best friend forever.

«I don’t believe him, it’s another tall tale of his,» Lulu reaffirmed her argument.

Riku clenched a fist, like if he was holding back from telling something. Something came to Sora’s mind – that event the previous year when they found there were strangers on the beach, and that person who was suffering. Other worlds _existed_ , even if people at the islands thought that to be an old wives’ tale, and maybe the girl came from another world.

«Listen, Wakka, if what you’re saying is true,» Riku finally said. «You gotta do like Basil of Baker Street, bring out the _evidence_ when you solve a case. If there’s a girl at the mayor’s house, what’s her name? How is her hair? Does she like playing pirates or ninja? Can she ride a bike without the wheels?»

Wakka glared at Riku, halfway between offended and worried, instinctively taking a step back.

«I’ve heard the grown-ups talking,» he said. «The girl doesn’t remember anything, but the doctor says she’s not older than five. He says he saw her teeth and she hasn’t started losing them.» Wakka leaned with his back against the wall and started poking with a finger at his loose incisor.

«Stop doing that, you’re gonna swallow it.» Lulu swatted his hand away.

«So what’s her name?» Sora approached the first-graders and broke the ice. The girl was _five._ Five like him! She would have been in kindergarten and they would have been friends!

«Riku, don’t tell me your friend believes such a tall tale…» Lulu hardly acknowledged Sora. «No, wait, he’s five. He can be that easy to fool.»

«Don’t say stuff about Sora or I’ll _unfriend_ you!» Riku snapped almost immediately.

Lulu stared at Riku as if he had shrunk. Defiantly, Riku stood next to Sora and took his hand, just like if he was his classmate and the teacher had told him not to let go, then he got a few steps away from Wakka and Lulu taking Sora away.

«Sora, do you think the teachers could put me back in K?» Riku whispered.

«Don’t worry, next year I will be in first grade.» Sora let go of Riku's hand and crossed his arms behind his head.

«But then I'll be in second…» Riku lowered his shoulders.

«Yeah but remember, when I was in pre-K and you were in K we shared the cafeteria.» Sora swung on his own feet. «Next year we'll do it again. And recess too. We won't be on different floors anymore.»

Sora would have wanted to say more, but the school bell started to ring, and the teachers started leading the children in their classrooms.

Preschool and kindergarten children would have stayed on the ground floor. First graders and older had the first floor.

Riku was called by his teacher and walked away along with Lulu and Wakka, hands in his pockets and looking at the ground.

«Yo, Sora, wait!» Wakka stopped while his class was leaving.

Looking the other way, Sora noticed his own teacher had started calling for the class, but he stayed and listened to what the older boy had to say.

« _Kairi._ » Wakka gave him a grin. «The girl's name is Kairi!»

* * *

_I can give you purpose._

It wasn't the first thing he lost something, or someone.

He still remembered when, in eighth grade, he had come back to school after his parents' funeral, and he had had to bear the looks of his whole class, he still remembered the oppressing silence of that morning.

The black garments he wore felt heavy on his shoulders, and the oppressing whiteness of what had to be his new room almost blinded him.

Once, Mr. Braska had told the class that a person who lost a limb, which logically they wouldn't be able to feel, kept feeling the pain as if the missing arm or leg were still there, in an inconvenient and uncomfortable position.

How was it possible _to feel_ and _not to feel_ the pain at the same time?

He no longer had a home, a grandma, a sister.

It was like when he had lost Mom and Dad and he had still expected to see them return home in the evening, and countless times he had shouted for his father in a silent house, asking for help for math problems no one would have solved.

Almost four years before, Isa had told him he cried too much.

In that moment, _Axel sure wished he could cry._

* * *

The graduating kindergarteners all stood in a straight line on a stage composed of desks glued and nailed to each other since forever.

Riku knew well that stage. Only the previous year, wearing a blue smock and a cardboard grad hat he had spent the previous days decorating, he had been over there. He and his classmates had sung a song that said there were other things that mattered, that in the quiet time of evening stars made patterns, and that they could recognize themselves in the constellations.

Sora had been in the audience that day, and when the song said "those constellations look like you and I", Riku had pointed at him and looked in his eyes despite all his classmates pointing in front of themselves.

Now Sora was on stage, with his usual red shorts under the smock, standing between Kairi and Chappu, the paper of his hat almost disappearing under stains of color, glitter and tissue paper. He had made his usual _mess_ , but he really looked proud of it. Next to him, Kairi had covered her grad cap with drawings of stars and flowers.

Mama and Papa had told Riku that Mayor Henry had _adopted_ Kairi – he had written and signed some papers in which he pledged to be the girl’s father.

Rumor among the older kids said that the girl had wept when Mayor Henry had told her she could call him Dad. Riku still didn’t get the difference – a child was still a child, no matter if they were brought by the stork or fell from the sky. Besides, didn’t parents actually choose to become parents? Why was _adopting_ such a big deal? Maybe because Kairi was a big girl already, and she already knew how to write her name and draw?

His doubts about whether Kairi was a real girl had been solved when, some days after Wakka and Lulu’s argument, _Kairi had arrived at school_.

She had ended up in Sora’s class, in the desk close to his, and Sora had started taking her along in their adventure afternoons.

Sora had taught her to play pirates, and she had quickly grown to love that game. Sometimes she even proved to be a challenge in races.

But the biggest change in their lives was that Sora left the kindergarteners’ group more and more rarely, favoring Kairi over the bigger kids.

«Before the children receive their diplomas, they would like to sing a song.» The teacher announced on a microphone.

Riku smiled. He was waiting for that moment: just like he had done the previous year, Sora probably would…

The song wasn’t the same.

« _Someday, when we are wiser, when the world is older, when we have learned…_ » the squeaky voices of the little ones filled the hall after some chords from a piano.

Riku stayed still, watching and listening. Things had changed… the very song’s lyrics were about change.

No gesture included pointing at the audience, most of the time the hands of the kindergarteners were pointing at themselves.

« _… our fight will be won then, we’ll stand in the sun and the bright afternoon…_ »

Riku couldn’t tell if the song was happy or sad, but Sora was smiling and singing his lungs out, swinging from left to right and exaggerating his gestures. As usual, he was enjoying every single second of it.

It almost hurt him physically seeing his best friend on that stage, even if Riku had waited for that day for a whole year. He had thought he would be feeling part of the celebration, but it wasn’t like that. Despite sitting on the floor, in front of the first rows of seats, he felt a million worlds away.

Sora had Kairi now. He had another song to sing.

The song and the piano faded, but before it happened, Kairi’s hand was clutching Sora’s. The teacher got on stage and approached the microphone in a corner.

«When I call your name, you’ll come here, take your diploma, one by one, just like we rehearsed.» She announced. «You will smile for the camera, then you’ll join your families in the audience. Show them how grown-up you are.»

She called some names, and one by one the children she had called left the line, took the colored scroll the teacher handed them, posed for a picture and stepped off the stage to find their families in the audience.

When Sora’s turn came, the boy took off his cap and threw it before the picture, like he had seen the high-schoolers did in movies. The teacher made him fetch his hat and tickled him a little, then she _literally_ kept him still for the picture and gently pushed him to the staircase that led down.

Sora left the stage, but he stayed still for a moment, in front of the bottom step, holding the diploma in a hand and wearing his cap on a jaunty angle, with the tassle dangling in front of his eyes.

He was still staring at the stage, on which Kairi had been called by the teacher.

The little girl was visibly more shy. She didn’t emulate the reckless gesture of her classmate, calmly posing for the photographer and going down the stairs.

Then Sora took her hand…

… and they both ran to Riku.

«Did you see that? We’re _out of preschool_! Now we’re big kids like you!» Sora skipped on the spot with a triumphal grin.

For his enthusiasm, he had probably waited for that moment for the whole morning – and Riku knew Sora too well to think he could have been faking it.

He was almost ready to accept everything had been changed for good when Sora looked away from him to turn to Kairi, but immediately the two gave each other a conspiratorial smirk and, dropping their caps and diplomas, tackled him shouting together: «GOT YOU!»

And in that moment, trying to escape his best friend’s grip, Riku decided that maybe it was okay like that. Maybe they weren’t the amazing two anymore.

But maybe it was better, _now they were the amazing three_.

* * *

Traverse Town was mostly dim and silent, but after weeks of travel and a year spent trying to settle, some of the Garden’s exiles had _started_ calling it home.

It wasn’t easy. Aerith had serious doubts that it would have _become_ easier.

One of the children she had managed to save, Yuffie, still wet her bed sometimes. Squall, the only boy in her class Aerith had seen, had stopped responding to his own name from out of nowhere. There wasn’t a family that had stayed whole, _instead_ , most of the survivors were literally alone.

Everyone had seen someone vanishing in the dark. Justice Ilyas had lost his wife, just like Captain Cid, the man who had taken them there. Squall, Aerith and Yuffie had lost their parents. Some, like Isa, the justice’s only son, and his best friend Lea, along with his whole family, had disappeared without leaving any trace even before the catastrophe had struck.

She didn’t even want to imagine what could have happened to Kairi, Lea’s little sister, or the orphans Lord Ansem was raising in his castle: thirteen-year-old Ienzo, and little Shiro who hardly spoke in coherent sentences.

All those people had found themselves _in the castle_ when the worst had happened… without anyone to be there and save them after the city guards had vanished one after another.

Aerith had tried to convince herself for months Lord Ansem’s guards had done something. That sooner or later, Lea and Isa would have appeared out of nowhere along with Lord Ansem’s men and would have brought back the people they had managed to save. Or, that they would have managed to make a new home.

But as time passed, her hope dwindled more and more.

«I wish I had my bat.» Tifa confessed her in a lonely afternoon they had spent walking in the alleys. «I would just like to smash something.»

She had lost her mother to a disease as a little girl, and now the darkness that had devoured their world had taken her father too. Cid had dragged her away from the main square while she was out cold, but no one had been able to do something for the broken body of her father, caught by a collapsed building.

«I don’t think a piece of wood could help.» Aerith sighed. «It didn’t help Cloud when he and Zack tried to…»

She stopped, remembering Tifa couldn’t know. Zack had made her promise _silence_.

«Do you know what happened to them?»

Tifa wasn’t born yesterday.

Aerith hesitated for a moment. She didn’t want to break a promise made to her vanished boyfriend. But what Zack had predicted, a catastrophe that was about to happen on their whole world, _had actually happened_ , and the main reason for the boy to keep the secret was the possibility for someone to thwart their plan.

What else could they do to them? _What?_ They had nothing left to lose.

Aerith had lost her boyfriend, her best friend, a family, and her whole class had been reduced to three kids.

«The girl Lea was babysitting. Zack kept telling she had been abducted from her real parents, and that Braig, the guard, had something to hide.» Aerith confessed, a lump forming in her throat. «Zack said that everything had to be linked… ever since the square got wrecked…»

She could not go on – she had finally managed to talk to someone about it, and everything she had been holding back during the last months was coming out along with sobs and tears.

«He was trying to stop them… _they were trying to stop them!_ Zack and Cloud, Lea and Isa… they wanted to call for help…»

Tifa didn’t let her go on – she put her hands on her shoulder, then she squeezed her in a hug.

«It’s up to us now.» She told her. «The boys will be still around somewhere. I know. I feel it.»

She let her go and stepped backwards.

«No one has seen them taken… no one has seen them die. _What is your heart telling you_?»

Aerith did not answer, but she felt like bursting into sobs again when she realized Tifa was probably right. No one had seen Zack and Cloud after they had vanished, just like no one had seen Lea and Isa after they had left for their internship at the castle some days before the catastrophe had happened. It had not even been unheard of, as a fact – it was almost normal that Lord Ansem’s scholars did not leave the castle for days.

It wasn’t even certain the danger had come from the castle – some survivors swore it had been a _witch_.

«They must be still around somewhere.» Tifa resolutely clenched a fist. «If we managed to arrive here, _then_ we can go where they are. We can bring them back home.»

Aerith was about to say something else, but the sound of someone running on the pavement made both girls look up.

«Hey, Leon.» Tifa addressed the newcomer.

The boy who until months before had responded to Squall turned around a corner, slowed down, and walked towards them.

«Didn’t Zack talk about weird people fighting with huge keys?» he asked them, a ghost of hope on his scarred face. «And Lea and Isa, didn’t they know them too…?»

«Something like that…» Tifa murmured. «But not just those three. Also Mr. McDuck at the ice cream place, and old man Merlin, too.»

Leon went back to his unperturbed façade.

«I think one of them just found _us_.»

Aerith froze on the spot. What if it was one of Shiro’s relatives? How would have they explained that the child was gone, probably forever?

That they hadn’t been able to _save her_?

But the warrior following Leon wasn’t even _human_.

He was about as tall as little Yuffie, covered in black fur from head to toe, and his hears were on top of his head, round and huge.

«Sir, these are my friends Aerith and Tifa. Girls…»

Leon smiled again.

«… this is Master Mickey.»

* * *

«Good morning, Axel! I have a visit for you!»

Saix opened the door and let Shiro inside his friend’s room.

The little one now was surely at least three, even if the date they had chosen to mark her years probably wasn’t her birthday. She still wore Kairi’s old clothes, which maybe was the reason why Axel couldn’t stand looking at her. It was a little easier on him when Shiro wore the black coat over it, but the girl didn’t seem to like it at all.

Axel, sitting on the bed and staring at his feet, slightly looked up when Shiro tried to climb the mattress, then he started focusing on his shoes again.

Seeing the lack of reaction of his friend, Saix sat on the bed next to him and helped Shiro up. Considering the child was holding a crayon, it looked like a good idea to prevent her from climbing alone, before she covered Axel’s blankets in red marks.

«We have a number nine. Xigbar took here this… what you’d call a slowpoke with a guitar.»

He would have expected Axel to crack some jokes about the slowpoke, but his companion stayed silent.

«Demyx.» Shiro completed the sentence for him.

«He sucks so much at playing he could make it rain…» Saix tried to continue the conversation, even if it looked like it was in vain. Since they were at Castle that Never Was, his best friend, once the bossy firecracker of the group, dragged himself like a robot through all of their chores and missions and ended his days sitting on the bed, staring at the wall.

«A…xel?» Shiro, sitting between the two boys, dropped the crayon in Axel’s hand and pulled a funny face. «Smile bro! No sad face!»

Axel _visibly_ forced a grin.

«Hi Shiro… got it memorized, haven’t you?»

«It _did_ take her a year…» Saix forced a smile, too. He had hoped that things would have solved themselves within a year, and now instead there was one more Nobody, whatever Xemnas wanted, they seemed farthest from it than ever, they were fumbling in the dark regarding the Organization’s plans, and after losing his grandmother and sister, Axel was just as responsive as a rock.

Considering he had _no idea_ of what could have happened to his parents and to Bolt, Saix would have sworn that, had he had a heart, he would have probably caved in, too, but he couldn’t explain himself why _Axel_ was acting like that. Or at least he hadn’t been able to until it had come to his mind that, unlike him, his oldest friend _knew what that kind of grief felt like_.

«Axel, I did a thing.» Shiro pulled a sheet out of a pocket and unfolded it to reveal several stick figures. «This is you. This is me. Then there’s Kai and Dad and Saix and the others.»

«But…» Axel shook his head. His eyes looked misty. «’Shroom… your family… it’s not us. We’re just taking care of you until we find out mom. Do you remember what Zack said about your mom?»

Shiro’s face became sad.

«Mama…» She looked in Axel’s eyes. «But… Dad won’t stay with me. Axel why can’t you? Bro? Do you have a mission?»

Saix would have wanted to say something, but he stayed in silence. Shiro was getting too used to them. She hadn’t reacted at all at the mention of Zack, despite him having been one of her favorite playmates, and she was starting forgetting Kairi’s name.

What could they do?

Shiro would have forgotten _all the Somebodies in her life_ if too much time passed. And a Somebody couldn’t grow up among Nobodies, not left to herself like some kind of dandelion patch.

It was then Axel broke the silence.

«Hey, Shiro… _where’s Mr. Kupo_?»

To Saix it felt like hearing old Lea’s voice once again. He had to repress the instinct to stick a finger in his ear to check if he had heard it right.

«Come on… go get him before he feels alone!» Axel helped Shiro down the bed and pointed at the door with a grin.

The girl giggled and ran off as fast as her little legs and the cloak allowed her.

Only when she was outside the room, Axel looked at Saix.

«Now you’re the silent one. _She’s forgetting_.»

«You would have noticed it even before, if you didn’t stay here staring at the wall.» Saix immediately replied. « _My compliments, Lea, old chap._ »

Axel dropped himself backwards and slid forward on his bottom.

«She still remembers her.» He snorted. «She shouldn’t. She should remember her own family.»

He clutched in his hand the crayon Shiro had left on his bed – one of the many pieces of colored wax that had belonged to Kairi before her.

«We had promised Zack we would have done our best to take her away.»

He threw the crayon across the room, leaving an angry red mark on the wall in front of him.

«And look at us now!»

Saix laid down next to Axel – maybe the best thing was to stay on his level and close to him when he had his head full of nonsense – and stayed there for a moment.

«Like in the book Pa used to read to me. By rights we shouldn’t even be here – _but we are_ ,» he told him. «So we’d better get to the bottom of this. Why did we end up in this bog, Lea?»

«Because… we wanted to save lives?» Axel mumbled.

«Good. Let’s do it then.» Saix sat up and pulled up his friend. «Shiro will be here in moments, but this conversation isn’t over. Tomorrow, after our missions, let’s meet at the Clock Tower in that world we’ve seen where it’s always twilight.»

«Oh, sure, and what makes you think I’ll be there?» Axel stared at the red wax mark he had left on the wall.

«We may not have a heart, but you do still have your bottomless pit.» Saix smirked. «And in _that_ world, they have sea salt ice cream.»

* * *

_«Sora, do you like Riku?»_

_«Of course I like him, he's my best friend!»_

_«Good. So then, if something happens, and Riku is about to get lost… or say, he starts wandering down a dark path alone… you make sure to stay with him and keep him safe. That's your job, Sora, and I'm counting on you to do it, okay?»_

_He was standing on a floor made of glass, and the glass shattered, sending him falling into the void._

_«I’m doing you a big favor here, you know.»_

_«Would you like me to help you find your pieces?»_

_He was sitting on a beach he didn’t recognize, his back leaning against rocks. Next to him, on each of his sides, were sitting a man with golden, messy hair that almost reflected the twilight sun, and a little boy with blue hair so dark it almost looked black._

_«Sora, destiny isn’t written in stone…»_

_A boy’s voice. His tone was almost desperate._

_«… you can still prove him wrong!»_

Sora still felt like he was falling into the void when he opened his eyes.

He didn’t recognize the room around him as his own bedroom, and he was about to panic when he realized he was in a _sleeping bag_ in the _living room_ , and that Riku and Kairi were next to him, and on one of the walls was still hanging the banner Mom and Dad had nailed there for his twelfth birthday party, the day before.

He almost felt like _an idiot_ , getting so scared for such a cheap nightmare.

 _Nothing_ like that could have happened to him… Mom and Dad were upstairs, the floor wasn’t going to make him sink, and he felt like the strongest little boy in the world with Riku and Kairi next to him.

Well, strongest _boy_ , details.

He was growing up after all.

Instinctively, he reached out for Riku in the dark. He had barely touched his arm when the older boy had a start and opened his eyes.

«Wussup?» Riku’s voice was both sleepy and breaking.

Sora shook his head, staying quiet.

«Soooraaa?» Riku, laying on his side, smirked at his friend. «If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, I’ll wake Kairi up.»

Sora didn’t say a word, shook his head and made a begging gesture with his hands. Riku raised a foot, reached out with his leg over Sora and…

«What’s the matter?» Kairi mumbled from behind Sora. «Who’s kicking?»

«Sora just had a nightmare.» Riku immediately said.

«Did not!» Sora sat up.

Riku seemed to ignore Sora’s lie, or at least he recognized it for what it was.

«What else could keep a lazy bum like you awake?» He propped himself up with his hands, sat up, and put a hand on Sora’s back. «Sora, we’re your friends. You can tell us everything.»

Kairi sat up, too. «That, or you’re still high on sugar after all the frosting you wolfed down!»

« _Thanks a lot_ , Kairi.» Sora sighed. «For your information, I didn’t even bring out the marshmallows!»

He didn’t want to wake them up.

They shouldn’t have woken up.

It had been nothing but a bad dream, and Sora had just wanted to make sure that, in the dark living room, they still were there next to him.

«… now I think about it. What about hot chocolate with marshmallows?»

His proposal seemed good, because Riku gave him thumbs up and Kairi voiced her approval.

«… but we should turn the lights on before someone gets hurt. Kairi’s nightlight won’t do.» Riku stood up and walked to the switch.

«I’ll help, Sora.» Kairi walked towards the kitchen. Sora followed her and started looking for a pot, while Riku started tidying up the various pillows scattered on the floor.

«There’s nothing to be ashamed of in having night terrors, Sora.» Kairi whispered to him as Sora lit the stove under a pot of milk and started searching for the cocoa. «Papa says it’s normal to look for people you trust.»

«I know, Kairi, but…»

Sora didn’t feel like a small boy anymore.

He didn’t want to show himself weak and scared, not for something like that.

«Sometimes I have nightmares too.» Kairi confessed. «Sometimes I’m in a strange computer room, sometimes in a library. Someone’s after me. Sometimes I hear voices screaming my name… and telling me to run.»

Sora froze on the spot, clutching in a hand the cocoa jar he had just found.

«Kairi, why didn’t you tell us?»

«I know you two. You’d worry.» Kairi took the jar from his hands and took a spoon from a drawer. «The thing is, you two are idiots. Riku talks in his sleep, by the way. Last year I heard him mumbling about a wave of monsters attacking you.»

While Kairi poured the cocoa in the pot, Sora stayed silent. He had imagined his own nightmares were normal, but something like that… and his friends hiding it, like he did…

He felt more and more stupid by the minute.

He remained in silence as the cocoa was brewing, when they poured it into cups and he opened the marshmallows bag for the topping, and he said nothing when they returned in the living room with the three cups on a tray.

It was Riku, slouched on the couch, who spoke.

«So it _was_ a nightmare, wasn’t it?»

Kairi gave him a mean look.

«Do I have to mention _yours_?»

* * *

«I’ve found them.»

Saix sat on the edge of the clock tower and passed Axel an ice cream.

Under their feet, the clock of the Twilight Town station rang seven in the afternoon.

«Vexen… used them all this time.» Saix kept explaining. Axel was holding his ice cream, but he was staring at it without eating. «Experiments. A program named Project Replica, I don’t know the goal, but they got discarded, both of them, after four years, and put for three more to sleep in some kind of glass pods.»

Axel looked up.

«Are they alive? Are they still _people_?»

Saix snorted.

«Looks like Vexen needed them to be both.»

His mouth pulled in a grimace.

«They were taken _under the castle_. The Cavern Of Remembrance. The Heartless didn’t even touch them, for how well they were hidden.»

Despite the many times he had heard that, as a Nobody, he couldn’t feel at all, Axel found his mind invaded by something horribly similar to relief and hope, mixed with _fury_.

Shiro had been at Castle that Never Was for too long. She talked to herself, stated she had dreams of her mother, she often woke up screaming or in tears, and sometimes at the end of these nightmares, or even _during_ them, a beam of light appeared in her right hand clenched in a fist, flashed like a malfunctioning lightbulb, and faded.

It wasn’t a life suitable for a nine-year-old. Axel remembered when he, when _Lea was nine_ , as the distant period in which he had been the mascot of the fire brigade, he begged his parents for a little brother, and he tried to dump in the trashcan the string beans every time the school cafeteria had them on the menu.

«What now?» Axel asked, while the ice cream started melting in his hand. He frowned, then started eating. «What can we do?»

«What Zack and Cloud should have done. They’re still alive and themselves, Axel.» Saix finished his ice cream and pointed the stick at Axel. On the wood there was a word – WINNER. «We break those glass pods, we let them know that Shiro is alive and here, and we help her escape. From there, Zack knows where to go. Remember? He mentioned a world her parents visited.»

«Yeah, _got it memorized_. Them and Ventus too.»

Axel stared at Twilight Town’s perennial sunset, his ice cream melting in his hand. He couldn’t help thinking that Zack and Cloud, despite being imprisoned in who knew what conditions, were the lucky ones in that story.

He would have wanted to run away with them. But he _had nowhere to go_. Home was just a distant memory, just like Grandma and Kairi, and even if more friends of his, outside of Zack and Cloud, had survived the destruction of the Garden, he didn’t really want to see them.

«Saix, you don’t really think the Superior is acting in our interest.» Axel shook his head. «Assuming that things are going to turn out fine, and that Shiro will be a keybearer like her mother, and that’s why we’re keeping her here. But this story of the key that gathers hearts, and Kingdom Hearts and all that jazz… it all stinks to me, worse than burnt plastic.»

«Says the pyromaniac.» Saix gave him a reproaching look.

Axel pinched his nose bridge and sighed.

«Okay, not the best comparison, but… I no longer know what’s true. We might be throwing out of the window our chance at a normal life, or we might be saving someone’s life. I mean, we _surely_ are saving someone’s life. But does it really matter?»

Saix gave Axel a furious look, and for a moment, in Number VIII’s head flashed thoughts like “I’m about to die”, “now he kills me”, or “that’s it, had I jumped slightly higher I would have fallen off”.

«You already lost Kairi, Axel!» Saix stood up, his gaze blank in what could have looked like fury and instead could have even been something far worse – _Berserk_. «If we don’t do something, you could also lose Shiro!»

It was a mere sentence, but it might as well have been an arrow.

The Superior had said and repeated they could not feel the pain, but then, what _was that_?

«Okay.» Axel looked down at his boots. «Just tell me what to do.»

Saix seemed to calm down.

«I’ll free Zack and Cloud. I’ll make sure they’re fine and lead them here.» He sat down again. «You…»

He looked at Axel, and a shadow of his childhood smile, the one he had showed only for Bolt, appeared on his face.

«… take Shiro out for ice cream.»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs the children are mentioned to sing are "My Funny Friend and Me" and "Someday". Both were deleted from Disney movies and used for the end titles.
> 
> And yeah, time skip is the way!


	6. A Fair Price

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final "time skip" chapter, also the one in which the plot takes quite the turn.
> 
> Let's see, how many of you can tell the names of the boys watching the sky in Twilight Town? Lemme know if you think you guessed them!

Zack shook his head.

He was sitting on the stone floor of the same room he had been seeing for… _how long_?

Years, judging by how tight his clothes felt.

He stood up and the trousers he was wearing popped at least a stitch or two. He mentally cursed Ansem the So-Called-Wise’s apprentices and looked around.

«Isa, is that you?»

He thought he had seen his old friend before hearing the sound of shattered glass and falling on the floor.

Now instead he was alone again – save for Cloud, still sleeping in the other, intact pod. In a corner there were Angeal’s old sword and more weapons, abandoned in a mess. Near the pods there was a control panel, and Zack immediately dragged himself to it, found the commands to open the pods, and pressed them.

Two sections of the weird cage opened, setting Cloud free. Zack ran to hold his friend up – he had gotten _heavy!_ – then he put him down on the floor, holding his back up with an arm, and gave him a cuff on his face to try to wake him up.

They didn’t even keep his clothes on him, for how much he had gotten tall, and he was wearing something disgustingly similar to hospital gowns.

«Hey, Cloud… Cloud!» Zack shook his friend again.

«What…?» Cloud gave a moan.

«How are you feeling, man?» Zack allowed himself to smile seeing that Cloud was responsive. For a moment that had looked eternal to him, he had feared that his friend’s eyes would have remained glassy and he would have stayed unresponsive and mute.

« _Gross_ …» was Cloud’s only comment, accompanied by a disgusted grimace and a shaking of the head.

«Same, spiky.» Zack put one of Cloud’s arms around his shoulders and helped him stand up. «Come on, if someone opened the door we’d better not waste this chance. Let’s quit this place!»

It wasn’t easy to understand what “this place” was. They took the Buster Sword and another watchman sword, then they left the room they had woken up in and took a hallway. From the pristine white rooms they had found themselves in, a high door led them in what looked like an old, abandoned mine shaft. After a while, Cloud pushed Zack’s arm away, stating he could walk, but he had hardly made a few steps before he flinched.

«What’s up, Cloud, is something wrong?» Zack was quick to seize him again.

«Firefighter…» Cloud wiggled away from his friend’s grasp and walked to an abandoned helmet on the cavern floor. He lifted it up and examined it, gesturing to Zack to come close.

«This has been here for years.» Zack commented taking the helmet from Cloud’s hands. «And this crack here? Man, I think I know whose this was.»

There were the captain’s insignia on the helmet. The writing “Radiant Garden Fire Brigade”, with the number 8 underneath it. Zack knew _way too well_ that helmet – Captain Yuu’s helmet. He had seen it – and its owner – in fifth grade, during parents’ career day. He still remembered how much he had been biting his nails because no one had paid too much interest to his gardener father, after Isa had brought to the classroom his magistrate old man, and _Lea had boasted out loud that his mother commanded the fire brigade_.

«It was here, Cloud. The accident that killed Eadmund and Yuu.» Zack realized. «The accident that killed _Lea’s parents_.»

«You mean we’re under Ansem’s castle?» Cloud filled in the gaps.

«Yeah, and whatever killed them might be still around.» Zack instinctively took his hand to the sword that had belonged to his mentor. «Stay sharp.»

They didn’t have to wait much to find out what had attacked the firefighters years before. Shadows slipped on the cavern floor, moving towards them and emerging from the floor as black creatures with yellow, beacon-like eyes, twig-like limbs and a round head bobbing up and down, with something that looked like ears or antennae hanging from it.

They almost looked cute, Zack found himself thinking, if one of them had not been leaping at him baring what definitely had to be claws.

«Watch out, Spiky, those things hurt!» Zack hastily cut down his attacker.

Zack didn’t have to say it twice: in a single, fluid movement, Cloud took the sword he had strapped to his back in his hands, and stood back to back with Zack.

He didn’t even looked to _have been sick minutes before_ for how hastily and easily he had raised his guard and had started fighting the shadow monsters.

For how those things kept fighting for their lives even after Zack and Cloud had decimated them, those _monsters_ didn’t look very smart. It was only when there were only two or three of them left that Cloud’s legs gave in and the boy collapsed on his knees and hands, shaking visibly.

Zack quickly got rid of the last monsters and immediately knelt to his friend’s side. Cloud’s breath was ragged, his eyes were glassy, and his body was emitting the same dark miasma Zack had seen Hades using with him.

«Darkness…» Zack murmured, trying to hold Cloud up. «What have they done to us?», he hissed between his teeth.

He stayed alert, both towards the galleries and Cloud himself, for a period of time that felt endless to him. His best friend didn’t look to be going berserk or controlled by something, and only silence came from the mine shaft.

Zack sat on the stone floor and let Cloud sit down, holding him with an arm and rubbing his back with another, hoping for his friend to feel better…

«I can walk,» Cloud insisted again. «We gotta go.»

It had been a while since he had stopped emitting dark miasma, but Zack didn’t feel like putting him on a strain. Why only Cloud was feeling so sick…? They both had been exposed to the same stuff, as far as Zack remembered, before being shut like pickles in those glass pods.

Then Olympus came to his mind again. Hades. _Terra_.

He had been exposed to darkness too, before Terra set him free. And now he probably had grown an immunity to it, as if it was nothing but a bad case of the chicken pox.

«Okay, let’s leave these tunnels.» Zack pretended to give up. «But as soon as we get to wherever we find beds and a door we can close, it’s bedtime for you.»

They crossed the abandoned mines, slowly and alert, Zack moving faster to intercept any kind of attacker before Cloud got tired and felt sick again. At a point, he could have sworn he heard voices and something floating over their heads. He reached for his sword again when he realized they were _fairies_ – citizens of Radiant Garden, just like they had been.

«Hey!» He ran a few steps towards them, flailing around for them to notice him, but the fairies – three of them – flew away without noticing him.

 _Stupid pea-brained thingies_ , he thought mumbling between his teeth as he got back to Cloud, _how the heck could Professor Braska MARRY one?_

«Zack, over there!»

Cloud shook him from his thoughts, pointing up a finger at something behind him.

The youth turned, staring at the direction indicated by the younger boy. In the same direction the fairies had disappeared, at ground level, light came from outside through a crack in the rocks.

«An exit!» Zack exclaimed. «Good job, buddy!»

Lord Ansem’s castle was unrecognizable, at least from the outside.

Long before it had been a decade-old architecture masterpiece, now it was half-covered in machines, filthy and abandoned, with monsters patrolling inside and outside.

With a hand holding tight on Cloud’s wrist, Zack rushed across what was left of courtyard and hallways and ran with his sword in the other hand until he reached the familiar rooms of the guards’ quarters. They entered with Angeal’s old passkey, locked the door behind them, and Zack dropped against it, dragging his back on the bulletproof iron.

«What happened to _our home_?» he sighed, placing his butt on the ground.

Cloud sat down next to him. «We failed.»

It seemed they were the only living beings in the castle. The ruins, the devastation, the monsters… it had to be Xehanort’s doing.

«Don’t say that. _Cloud_. We’re not to blame, neither me nor you, if Sephiroth decided to lose his marbles. _We had to_ keep the castle and its occupants safe. That’s what heroes do… that’s what people with a heart do.»

He sighed.

«For what we know, Aqua might even be here, a prisoner just like we were.»

Cloud’s eyebrows furrowed.

«Who’s Aqua again?»

«Shiro’s mom. Her _real_ mom.» Zack stood up and walked towards the lockers. He didn’t want to stay in that tight and ripped uniform one minute more, and even Cloud desperately needed a change of clothes. «Met her in a world called Olympus. She wasn’t a local, she was just passing by, looking for her partner Terra. Who’s also a friend of mine, by the way. In the end we both ended up fighting against this crook named Hades, local lord of the Underworld, who had some kind of bone to pick with his own nephew and is looking for a hired blade to take him out.»

«And…?» Cloud mumbled.

«Do you remember when Xehanort and Shiro appeared and someone broke all the pavement in the main square? There were _Aqua’s footprints_ in the mortar. That’s the last place I found a trace of her.» Zack looked down, then he picked an uniform from the locker and tossed it to Cloud. «Put it on. It’s bulletproof, I don’t know how much it resists to monsters or magic, but it’ll cover you more than that sort of tissue paper they put on you.»

«It’s cold.» Cloud complained, but he removed that stinky pajamas and started getting into the uniform.

Zack didn’t respond, found another uniform that could fit him and started changing. In the rooms there were two dusty beds, probably there was a crate of long-life rations if they were lucky, and the castle doors were reinforced enough they couldn’t be broken by any wandering monster.

They could have taken shelter there for who knew how long, assuming they had food and ways to find a supply of fresh water, _or_ they had to put all the distance they could between them and that place, and then what…?

Zack threw himself on a bed, raising puffs of dust. After a while, Cloud did the same on the other bed, just he sat more slowly.

«Now what?»

«Well, we can’t stay here forever, that’s for sure.» Zack lied down and stared at the ceiling, talking in a flat tone. «If I know Aerith, and she’s the brightest person I know, she will be safe and miles away from here. I’d like to find her again.»

«Aerith knows ‘bout Cid and his ships.» Cloud laid down and mumbled. «He must have taken her to safety.»

«Wherever she is, she’ll be happy to see us. But we can’t crash at her place, her mother probably lives there too…» Zack turned to Cloud and let slip a chuckle. «No matter what we do, we need some munny first. What could we do?»

The younger boy shrugged.

«Dunno!»

Zack stood up again. It was no easy question – neither of them had finished high school, he had only his training as a guard and the most professional thing Cloud could say he had done was to have joined two school baseball teams.

While he thought, he crouched down with his legs, then he stood up again, then down and up again, in the gym exercise he had learned as a small boy and usually did to calm down when he felt edgy.

«HEY! Of course! I know stuff about the monsters attacking the worlds, and you and I got a lot of brains and skill that other guys don't!»

«Huh?» Cloud sat up. «Zack, we didn’t even _graduate_ …»

«Ven didn’t either, but that didn’t prevent him from slaying those things.» Zack laughed. «That settles it! I'm gonna become a mercenary! Boring stuff, dangerous stuff, anything for money.»

«Zack…» Cloud was crestfallen.

«And you’re with me, obviously.» Zack stood up and sat next to him. «You’re my best friend, remember.»

For a moment, they both stayed in silence. Zack could swear his friend’s eyes were filling with tears.

They were stranded in a castle abandoned and filled with monsters. Who knew what had been done to them. But they were _alive_. They were somewhat fine, they had a shelter, a plan and a hope.

After years behind the bars, they had a chance to start over, despite the unknown around them.

It took a while to Zack to notice that he felt like crying too.

If it hadn’t been for the dust, the smell of abandon, the fear and the worry, the could have pretended to be two city guards, ready for their next watch.

Then, a few wisps of darkness in a corner of the room made both men jump to their feet, and like a single warrior, the two put their hands to their weapons and raised their guard.

Some kind of dark portal had been opened in the room, and from it walked what looked like a human shape, clad in a dark coat.

«Who are you?» Unexpectedly, it was Cloud who spoke first, or better, hissed between his teeth, pointing the sword at the intruder. «Show your face!»

What looked like a claymore made Cloud lower his sword, but the mysterious figure did nothing but hold the weapon down.

«You can call me Saix.» The name was unfamiliar to Zack, but he could have sworn he had heard that voice before. «And it was me who set you free… and got rid of most of the Heartless so you could get to safety unharmed.»

Cloud grimaced.

«What do you want from us?» Zack stepped forward, ready to help Cloud with the Buster.

«Seven years ago you failed a mission.» The being named Saix stated in a flat tone, then he took a gloved hand to his garments and pulled out a picture portraying a nine-year-old. «You should have taken this child away from this castle. Your traces were lost, with only three witnesses knowing where you were going and what you tried to do.»

«Is that _Shiro_?» Zack recognized the girl in the picture. She was definitely grown, but she _was still clutching Mr. Kupo_. «Is she okay? Where is she?»

«Stop playing with us!» Cloud looked angrier by the minute. «What do you want from us? Show your face, you coward!»

He let go of the sword and hinted at a smirk.

«Or should I say _Isa_?»

He shuffled a foot backwards, then he threw himself on the stranger, reaching out for his hood.

He had just managed to put a hand on the cloth when his body started exhaling dark miasma again, and he collapsed on the floor in a shaking mess.

It was Saix who stepped backwards then, and what little Zack could see of his face was obscured by worry.

He immediately seized Cloud by his shoulders and dragged him on the bed, making him lie down. Cloud didn’t even seem to notice he had been grabbed, and kept shaking and panting, his eyes fixated on the ceiling without really looking at it.

«What’s wrong with him?» Zack’s first instinct was to ask for explanation – to ask the stranger whether that mysterious affliction was what he thought it was.

«Xehanort used darkness on him… and on you.» Saix replied. «Why it hasn’t affected you like it did to him, it’s not clear, but according to the notes I stole, it might have something to do with a previous exposure.»

«Tell me something I don’t know.» Zack snorted, keeping an eye on Cloud, who seemed to be calming down. «What do you know about Shiro? Where did they take her?»

«She’s in the hands of Organization XIII.» Zack didn’t see Saix’s eyes, but he could feel his gaze on him while the man in black talked to him. «The beings who are keeping her captive aren’t people like you and Cloud. They’re what some call _Nobodies_. Creatures without hearts that aim to reobtain it, with whatever means necessary.»

He stayed silent for an instant.

«Even a child who wields a dormant Keyblade.»

Zack bit his lip, finding nothing in his mind to comment the news. The end of the Organization, of the Nobodies, didn’t look so vile and despicable, but for how Saix had talked about using a child, the means probably were.

«I’m taking her away. Right now.» Zack nodded.

Saix snorted.

«Not _now_ , you abysmal idiot. I still have to take her away from the Castle that Never Was.» Zack almost saw him rolling his eyes. «And _no jokes_ on whether there is or isn’t something like that. I didn’t come up with the name. I’ll meet you tomorrow in front of Memory Skyscraper. I’ll be opening you a corridor outside this room, which will remain open until you cross it again. From there, in an abandoned hangar, you’ll find a ship that still works. You and Cloud will board it and take Shiro to a world called _Traverse Town_. The Garden’s refugees are there. All clear?»

«All but your face, _Isa_.» Zack sat on the bed. «Because _it is_ you, right?» He turned serious. «Few people knew about Mr. Kupo. You know our names and you knew we vanished after we came to this castle. Like you said yourself, _three witnesses_.»

Saix – if that was his name – summoned another darkness puddle.

«The boy you knew no longer exists, Zack.» He stepped in the shadows, in that sort of dark corridor he had used to get in the room, then he turned to him. He pulled back his hood, and the sea green eyes and blue hair of his old friend showed themselves on a face made unrecognizable by years and whatever had happened to him. «Be quick and you will at least save the girl.»

* * *

«I think another star went out.»

Seeing the night sky in Twilight Town was an event more unique than rare: the Sun never reached the zenith, nor disappeared beneath the horizon, but with a telescope and eclipse lenses, it was still possible to observe the stars.

Assuming they weren’t vanishing one after another.

«What your uncle said. Do you think it’s true?» The boy’s best friend adjusted the telescope in horizontal position and tried his best to look at the sky above them without the magnifying lenses. «Could it really be a bad omen?»

«Mah. You know better than me he does know a thing or two.» The boy crossed his arms behind his head and sighed.

It had been _days_ his “Uncle”, or better his loony old great-too-many-times-uncle, kept saying someone had to do something about the strange happenings that had started in the latest weeks.

The galleries under the town were no longer safe: strange beings, almost made of shadow, attacked whoever was imprudent enough to cross their way, and his best friend had saved more than once his little brother and his gang of friends shooting at the shadows with a flare gun.

«Yeah, such a shame Pence and his friends are convinced it’s another wonder of Twilight Town and I have to go and save their butts.»

The boy laughed. «Come on, your brother’s fourteen! You and I also made quite the mess a couple of years ago when we tried to explore the abandoned mansion at their age!»

«You and I were not alone.» His friend pointed a finger at him. «Hayner and Olette are stronger than Pence, but they aren’t your uncle or your _bodyguards_.»

«You still call Specs and Big Guy bodyguards? Oh come on, man…» The boy heavily sighed. «Well, at least they _did_ graduate.»

The two sat on the grass, next to each other, and kept staring at the sky. Somewhere beneath them, the train was whistling.

«I will sure miss this sunset.» The boy stood up, shook some dry grass away from his clothes, and helped his friend up. «So, ready to pack?»

«You really _aren’t_ afraid of this star-eating darkness?» His friend looked definitely scared.

«Afraid? No way!» The boy smiled. «As long as you stand by me.»

* * *

Cloud balanced the sword in his hands and raised his guard, ready to face his next challenger.

It had been at least _two years_ since he had arrived in Traverse Town alone and exhausted, with that kind of shadow puddle he didn’t even know how he had managed to call upon. He had hardly taken the time to rest and recover before looking for and finding Olympus, the world his best friend had told him about.

In the time he had spent there, living day by day with any boring or dangerous job he could get, participating in tournaments to stuff his pockets with drachmae and munny, he had not seen hair or hide of a Keyblade wielder.

It looked like they were gone from the worlds.

Cloud had even resigned himself to seal a deal with Hades, the local Underworld deity, in the fragile hope he could get his friend back. As days went by he was more and more convinced he had been fooled, because for how much he had been doing, for how much he had soiled his hands, it didn’t seem his employer had the intention to maintain his word, but _what other options did he have_?

Still, now the funeral king’s orders had crossed every line: the kid standing in front of Cloud might have had a Keyblade, but _how old could he be_? He had heard him speaking – his voice hadn’t even a hint of a break!

Cloud might have defined himself a mercenary, a hired blade, but for how much he wanted to see Zack again, he would have _never_ forgiven himself if he had harmed a child for his goals.

A child that might have even been the _key_ to fix the catastrophe that had left he and his friends without no longer a home or a family, and had harmed who knew how many more.

He was given the signal, and Cloud rushed forward to attack. The kid had skill, but it looked like _no one_ had really shown him the ropes of using a sword.

“ _Ha, ha, pot, kettle, black,_ ” a voice Cloud had jokingly started calling his own conscience sometimes and other times his sarcasm echoed in his head. He let the kiddo have his own way – he reminded Cloud a lot of _himself_ at that age! – then he decided to finish the fight dropping on his knees in the dust of the stadium.

He stood up again, cleaning up his trousers and walked to shake the boy’s hand, but something big and heavy struck him at his back, and everything became dark.

The fight with Cerberus had been one of the scariest things Sora had faced in his fourteen years of like, and the happenings of the few last days sure were no walk in the park.

He hoped that Cloud, that was the name of his final opponent, had not gotten seriously hurt. He looked tough as nails judging by how he had fought, but the blow of the gigantic three-headed dog had had to hurt for sure.

Sora had really _nothing_ against big dogs. Normally, the bigger ones were the funny, adorable ones that planted their forepaws on his shoulders to wash his face with their own drool. Still, he doubted a sane person could have adopted such a beast and give it a name that, according to what Hercules had sworn up and down, in Greek meant _Spot_.

«Come on, let’s _leave_.» Donald almost pulled him by the sleeve, eager to take him away from the coliseum and who knew to what other worlds.

In the arena courtyard, though, sitting on the steps and staring at his boots, there was Cloud. He didn’t seem to be suffering, but he did look demoralized.

«Hey, are you all right?» Sora walked faster and stopped in front of his former opponent.

«Yeah…» Cloud hardly looked up.

«So why did you go along with him, anyway?»

The older boy lowered his head again, leaning it on his hands.

«I’m looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired.» He stood up. «I don’t really know how I’m going to face…»

«I don’t think they’d be happy with what you did, ah-yuck.» Goofy intervened before Cloud found the words he was looking for. «Whoever you were talking about, telling Hades no was the right thing.»

Cloud looked at Sora, Donald and Goofy, staying in silence, then he sighed and looked at Sora.

«Sora, right?» he asked him. «Is there anyone else with you? Someone with a sword like yours, but older? A golden-haired young man, or a man and a woman in their twenties?»

Sora shook his head before Cloud finished asking, but Donald spoke for him.

«They vanished!» the mage intervened. «About ten years ago!»

«WHAT!» Sora almost grabbed Donald by the clothes. «I thought I was the only one!»

In the corner of his eye, Sora saw that Cloud almost flinched, as if Donald’s piece of news was no good to him. His question could have waited, because it seemed there was a reason behind what Cloud was trying to say.

«Their child, Shiro. She’s still alive somewhere. Captive of Organization XIII.» Cloud composed himself and walked away, then he dropped something in Sora’s hands. «Sora, don’t lose sight of your light.»

Cloud walked away with a heavy step, clenching his teeth and fighting back tears.

Despite that trio was visibly on a hero’s mission, despite he knew Aerith and Tifa would have _never_ looked at him again, had he respected that disloyal agreement, despite he felt he had done the right thing by not raising the blade that had belonged to Zack on such a young boy…

… that had probably been his last chance, and he felt like he had thrown it away.

He could not stay in Olympus anymore.

After all, he had found a keybearer. He had told him that Shiro was still alive, even if despite the many times he had tried to get back to the World That Never Was, he had never really made it there. Hades was definitely not going to help him again, not after he had seen where his loyalties lied.

The voice in his head, that sounded a lot like his old friend Zack, kept telling him that his actions had made him honor, and no one would have condemned him, had he gone back to Traverse Town alone.

Aerith and Tifa just couldn’t wait to welcome him back.

He looked back for a moment. Sora was still there, with half his face covered by the silly smile only a boy his age could have.

After all, Cloud had been like him a lifetime before. Ten years before, when Zack had helped him score a home run and had told him he wanted them to be friends. All the afternoons they had spent playing catch. Even the lunch break at school, the old school uniform gifted to him.

He realized in that moment what had made him stay his hand – it would have been just like killing _himself_.

And that would have never, ever been a fair price for Cloud Strife.

It was time to go home.

* * *

«See, Shiro? That boy over there. Go to him and say hello.»

Axel pointed at a boy, slightly older than Shiro but trying to shrink among the people. He was wearing a white jacket with checkered motifs and a black vest over grey trousers, and his spiky, messy hair went from light brown on the roots to golden blond on the ends.

Shiro felt like he had seen him somewhere else, but she really had no idea about the where and when.

«Axel, he looks a little…» Shiro pulled a face, then she pointed at her own temple and made a circling motion with her index finger, then she mouthed without speaking the word “ _cuckoo_ ”.

«Don’t worry, he’s our man.» Axel smirked. «Your old man wants us to bring him home.»

Shiro shook her head. As usual, Father made plans without any kind of sense or reason. Hadn’t he seen him first? And given him a _name_?

«Axel, it makes no sense. Why didn’t _he_ get him?» She shook her head and snorted.

«Well, _I don’t know_ , Shiro, that isn’t a normal Nobody… that’s a kid’s Nobody… maybe he saw your old man’s face and pooped his pants.»

«You told me Nobodies don’t feel fear…» Sometimes, Shiro could have sworn that Nobodies, and Axel in particular, made speech with no sense just to confuse her.

«Listen, ‘Shroom, _I really don’t know_ , but the job fell on me and I think it’s gonna be easier for you.»

«Okay, _okay_.»

The eleven-year-old left to Axel her black coat, remaining in the purple T-shirt and baggy cargo shorts she wore underneath, and made a few steps in the streets, casually walking towards the lost boy.

Twilight Town wasn’t new to her… on the contrary, it had been about two years since Axel had taken her first there to eat ice cream, more or less since Saix had wounded his face and stopped talking to him. Probably, Shiro had told herself, Axel had started doing it because he had lost his friend.

But that felt nonsense, if Axel had lost his friend, didn’t that mean he felt sad? And how could a Nobody feel sad if Nobodies didn’t feel?

Well, that wasn’t the time and place to think about it.

She stopped in front of the boy – was he really a Nobody? He didn’t look like one! – and waved him hello.

«Hi! My friend Axel and I are going out for ice cream. Wanna join us?»

The boy stayed still, but looked in Shiro’s eyes without answering. Was he mute? Or maybe he just didn’t know what ice cream was… but he looked like he had heard her, so Shiro kept talking.

«Ice cream? _Yum, yum_.» She pointed at her own cheek.

The boy – Nobody? It was the first time Shiro saw one so small – made a step backwards, as if something had frightened him. What kind of reaction was that? Shiro was offering him a snack!

Hang on. What else could she show him… something so he wouldn’t be scared…

Shiro had an idea and pulled Mr. Kupo out of the bag she always carried on herself. Maybe the boy needed a friend like Mr. Kupo.

«This is Mr. Kupo and he’s my best buddy.» Shiro raised the Moogle doll in front of the boy with both hands. «He wants to know your nam…»

 _Oh no_. The boy was definitely trying to walk away…

«Oh come on, Shiro, what did I tell you about introducing yourself?» Axel almost appeared out of nowhere and cut off the boy’s escape attempt. « _First_ you say your name. Then you talk about toys or sweets.»

Shiro stuck out her tongue at Axel, then she sighed and looked at the boy, who still looked puzzled but had stopped, and now looked more curious than scared.

«Hi! I’m Shiro,» the girl started, pointing at herself. «That is Axel…» she pointed at the tall man with the coat. «… and this is Mr. Kupo.» She raised the plush with her other hand. «Nice to meet you! Do you have a name?»

It was then the boy looked in her eyes again. His mouth slightly opened and out came a murmur that sounded a lot like “R-uh-mph”. It didn’t make much sense, but Shiro stayed silent, not willing to scare him.

«Say what?» It was Axel who asked him to repeat. «I haven’t got it memorized, kid. Can you say that again? Louder?»

The boy looked down, breathed a couple times, then he looked at Axel before speaking a little louder, articulating the syllables.

«R-roxas. _Roxas_.»

He spoke. _Roxas had spoken_! Shiro started skipping on the spot.

«You can talk then!» She giggled. «I like you, you know? And Mr. Kupo likes you too!»

«Okay, Shiro, but tell Mr. Kupo not to scare him!» Axel chuckled. «I think Roxas here is a little shy.»

«Uh-uh.» Shiro nodded and clutched Mr. Kupo in her arms. After years together, the doll had gotten a little floppy, and first Saix and then Axel had sewn it up several times, and the girl didn’t know how it could scare somebody… or _No_ body… but she paid heed to Axel and put the toy Moogle in her backpack.

«Okay, are we all calm now?» Axel made two cautious steps towards Roxas. It was rare Shiro saw him so calm. «Uhm, _hello_ , Roxas, nice to meet you. I’m Axel, got it memorized?»

Roxas looked from Shiro to Axel and back a couple times.

«Axel…» he pointed at him. «Shiro…» he pointed at her, then he lowered the index towards the spot where the plush peeked out of her bag. «Mr… Kupo…»

Axel took a hand to his mouth and emitted some kind of snort. It took some time to Shiro to realize it was the first time since _who knew how long_ she was seeing him laugh.

«Well, it’s a start. Want to come with us?» Still calmly, Axel reached out to Roxas. «Me and ‘Shroom here were _going_ to get some _ice cream_. For a snack. If you _want it_ there’s one for you too.»

Roxas’s face contorted in some sort of a grimace, and the boy looked again from the man to the child. He mumbled something and snorted with his nose, then he looked down, then up, then he nodded.

«Good, then follow us!»

Without his usual bold looks, Axel pointed at a road and walked calmly, so much unlike he usually did. Shiro followed him, and after a moment of hesitation, Roxas did the same.

«Oh, Roxas?» Axel turned his head as he walked. «Would you be so kind to take Shiro’s hand? I really don’t want her to fall behind and get lost!»

Shiro almost protested – get lost, _her_? – but a look and a nod from Axel persuaded her to stay silent and to offer the older boy her hand.

It wasn’t _her_ who risked to fall behind and get lost – it was him, so out of it and lost, who risked to stay behind.

Five rough and calloused fingers closed around her smaller hand. Shiro looked up at Roxas and smiled, giving him in turn a gentle squeeze.

Roxas looked in her eyes again, pulling a face once more. It was as if he didn’t know how to smile, or maybe the reason for smiling, but he looked to be trying his best to set off on his right foot.

«S-shiro…» he murmured. There was more he was trying to tell her for sure, but he didn’t seem to know the words.

Shiro gave his hand another squeeze and started following Axel, with Roxas meekly walking by her side.

«You know, Roxas…»

Despite her new friend didn’t talk, Shiro hoped he was listening and understanding what she was about to say, because if he really was going to stay with them, probably things at the Castle would have changed, and for the better.

«… I think you and I are going to have lots of fun.»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Shiro's first POV!  
> I think some of you? (OrionRedde, Shyrstyne, looking at ya!) might know how the story could go...
> 
> Oh, and news of the day, the story got a third co-author. One of the roleplayers of the role this story came from, the boy who roled as Roxas (also known as everyone's widdle Roxas boy) is giving us (Beater and Miraha) a hand with writing as Roxas.


	7. Thirteen

DAY 7

Sitting in his throne in the Round Room, Axel yawned and covered his mouth.

Moments before, Saix had announced in the Grey Area that day’s reunion would have been very important and he expected everyone to be on time, only to later show the ghost of annoyance when Shiro had loudly complained: the girl wasn’t allowed to participate in meetings, even _now_ that Roxas, hardly half a head bigger than her, _was allowed_.

Probably Shiro had been the one who had suffered the most – _obviously_ , as a Somebody – by the sudden change in behavior Saix had shown after he had been disfigured. Axel had tried to ask his friend what had happened, but he had categorically refused to talk about it.

«Good tidings, friends. Today is a momentous day.» Xemnas began, as the room fell silent. «I am pleased to announce that a new comrade has been chosen to wear the coat.»

Axel composed himself and scratched his chin. Some were looking at the entrance to the hall – he noticed in particular that Xigbar looked rather livid, which made him, if possible, even more hideous than usual.

A small figure, probably a little shorter and thinner than Roxas, had made their entrance in the room. Their face was still covered by the black hood.

Now they took them _that young_? Axel hadn’t flinched in front of Marluxia and Larxene, but they had looked his age. And Zexion… he had been even younger when everything had happened, but mentally he had always been ahead of his peers.

Roxas was another can of worms, if it was true that he had been a Keybearer as a Somebody – as far as Axel remembered, that kind of people could be skilled warriors even in their youth. And his striking resemblance to Ventus, apart from his slightly darker hair, hadn’t even been mentioned. The week before, Axel had hoped that making Shiro interact with him, there would have been at least a hint of familiarity between the two, but despite how quickly they bonded for being a lonely child and an amnesiac Nobody, Shiro and Roxas had interacted exactly like they had never met before.

«Number XIV. Xion.»

Axel started asking himself what could have been the shorty’s name before their heart was lost. With just three letters, of which two were vowels, there weren’t many possibilities, and none of them made sense.

 _Look who’s talking_ , he thought to himself while Xion stared at Roxas. The little runt looked as lost as Roxas had been in the previous days, and kept looking around and staring at the seated Nobodies in silence.

Their gaze met Axel’s.

_It… can’t be…_

The Superior was saying something about the Organization’s purpose and a hope for all of them, but Axel’s ears were invaded with some sort of buzzing.

 _He knew_ that face, even if he had not seen it in nine years.

Xion was a _girl_. And those blue eyes, that innocent look, the shape of her face… oh, if _Axel had it memorized_.

Axel looked up to Saix, trying to understand whether he, too, had recognized Kairi’s facial traits on the newcomer’s face, but his old friend looked at Xion with a face that could have meant annoyance or outright disgust – and Isa had _never_ looked at Kairi that way.

He had been told and repeated that, as a Nobody, he had no heart.

 _He could not feel_.

Yet Marluxia did feel. He felt ice creeping up his guts and invading everything else. And, judging by Larxene’s face on the other side of the room, she had had to have seen what he had.

The kid, Xemnas’s new recruit, had just looked up towards him, when Marluxia had seen, just like in a flash, red hair, a lost face, and sea green eyes.

_Why did Xion look so much like Strelitzia?_

Of _all the people_ Xigbar had seen in his many lives…

Why did the poppet take _that_ face?

He did remember that little boy. Ever since _he_ had carried a proper Keyblade and the shrimp clutched one of those cheap copies the Master had created with a snap of his gloved fingers.

First Sora’s Nobody. Now his _Replica_?

As if. How long would it have been, before Xigbar saw Ventus everywhere?

A hint of a smirk appeared on the Superior’s face.

After his duel with the Keyblade’s chosen, the memories he had gathered from the boy seemed to have achieved their purpose – number XIV was physically identical to Sora, blue eyes, round face, and spiky chestnut hair.

Now they only had to wait and see if it would acquire _his powers_.

Once stable, Number XIV would have been exposed to missions, to the same stimuli of Number XIII, and it would have likely shown itself _as worthy as he was_...

… and even if it would not happen, the presence of the two would have probably inspire the _girl_ to summon her own, latent key…

«Aaaw, it’s taking _so long_!» Shiro had to hold herself back not to punch the door. She could have done it, but her conscience would have protested, like it did every time she pulled a prank on a Nobody. «Why does Father let Roxas in and doesn’t let me?»

“ _Shiro, stay silent. We won’t hear anything if you keep mumbling like that!_ ”

Saix had told and repeated her that the conscience didn’t actually exist, but sometimes Shiro was sure she could hear it… _them_ … talking just like if there was someone else in the room. Maybe it was different for Nobodies and Somebodies.

«Why do you wanna listen?» she asked her conscience.

“ _Because… well, you do, too!_ ”

«Yeah, but I want ice cream after this!» Shiro smirked.

“ _Come on! That’s cheating, kid!_ ”

Shiro had the impression that, had her conscience been in front of her (its voice sounded like an older boy), it would have slapped its forehead with its hand.

The doors of the room opened, and, one after another, the thirteen Nobodies – plus one – left the room.

Last came the new ally, the one they had named Xion, number XIV. They were a little shorter than Roxas and walked with their head down. Their hair was a lighter color than Roxas’s, spiky but shorter, and their eyes were the same blue.

“ _Can’t be…_ ”, the conscience echoed in Shiro’s mind. The girl closed her eyes and shook her head – since when did a conscience know people? – and in the moment her eyelids closed, Xion had raised their hood, remaining with their face almost completely hidden.

«Did you see their face?» Shiro whispered to her conscience, holding up Mr. Kupo to her face so it would look like she was talking to him.

She wasn’t intentioned to have an encore of Xigbar taunting her like when he had found out she “talked to herself”.

“ _I think I was wrong. We probably have hallucinations._ ”

«What is that? Something wrong with the big toe?»

“ _No, it’s when you think you see something that isn’t there… I’m sorry, Shiro. I thought I saw my friend Ventus_.”

Ventus? The name wasn’t new to her – Shiro was sure she had heard it, probably mentioned by Axel or something. He probably had to be a former “employer” of her conscience before she had been born.

«I’ll go talk to them.» Shiro resolved, then she lowered Mr. Kupo and walked cautiously towards Xion.

She stopped in front of the kid and tried to look in their face despite the hood covering most of it.

«Hello.» She smiled and reached out slowly. If Xion was anything like Roxas, she had to show the same tact. «Nice to meet you, I’m Shiro.»

The new recruit didn’t answer, and they hardly noticed they had been just addressed. Shiro tried to clear her throat and restart, but something hit on her sternum, making her stagger back.

«No disturbing the new kid, squirt!»

Shiro immediately recognized Xigbar’s awful voice. She had to resist the temptation to lower her head and bite his hand – Father had locked her up for days the last time she had bitten a Nobody – and instead evaded his grip and stared at him in a challenging way.

«I just wanted to talk, you ugly wharf rat!»

Xigbar stepped backwards, in his sickening and soppy act of feigning fear. Shiro almost repented _not_ biting him – at least the insults and profanities he would have spitted out in that case would have been as authentic as it could be expected from a Nobody.

«Oh, Sunshine wants to burn today!» Xigbar commented.

«DON’T USE THAT NAME!» Shiro raised both fists and threw herself at Number II. Xigbar moved aside, making her lose balance, then he seized her by the collar of her t-shirt.

He raised her up, then he shoved her back.

Shiro hated when Xigbar acted like that, it was almost worse than if he had actually hit her. He had hardly moved, yet he had incapacitated her, and yet after him calling her like that – _only Father could use that name!_ – Shiro wouldn’t have wished for anything else than to make his only eye black.

«What are… you doing?»

Before Shiro could lunge for Xigbar again, Roxas had approached them and was staring at them, visibly baffled.

«What’s up now, Sunshine, calling for the tiger to help you?» Xigbar looked down to both kids. «Do you brats wanna play?»

Roxas was visibly confused by Xigbar’s behavior, but he stood next to Shiro and grabbed her hand.

«What are you doing?» he asked her again.

« _Only Father can call me Sunshine_.» Shiro repeated.

Roxas stared at her, puzzled, but he shrugged. Xigbar seemed to decide he had had enough of his fun with them, because he chuckled and walked away.

«Seriously, Shiro, _again_?» Axel approached the two.

Shiro did not even answer – it wasn’t the first time she ended up in trouble with Xigbar, only the first time Roxas defended her. Axel had memorized the whole story anyway, and there would have been no use for Shiro to explain herself.

«Axel, I don’t get it.» It was Roxas who asked for explanations.

«Of course you don’t, it’s Somebody stuff. Shiro thinks different.» Axel grinned. «Say, do you want me to explain it while we have an ice cream? I don’t think we’ll be getting missions today.»

They left the Castle in three and reappeared in the only other world Roxas remembered. The sunset light was warm, both on the face and on the inside.

One of the many things Roxas did not understand, but Shiro looked happy, so he just went along with it.

«It’s not the first time Shiro ends up in trouble with Xigbar.» Axel started explaining while they walked the streets, holding three packaged ice cream bars in a hand. «When he was still a Somebody and Shiro wasn’t higher than my knees, she kept pointing at him and squeaking “ugly, ugly, ugly”.»

«Well, _try to prove me wrong,_ Axel,» Shiro replied with a shrug. «I bet he broke at least twenty mirrors in his rooms.»

«I’m not trying to, Shiro, but you should stop getting into trouble with him like that. You don’t even let a week pass without pranking someone in the castle.» Axel led the two up a staircase. «Balloons in Zexion’s room while he was on a mission. The krazy glue on the chair, and _you got lucky_ I noticed instead of Larxene. And I really don’t know how you managed to doodle on Saix’s face as he slept without him waking up and giving you a lesson, but _believe me_ , I know it was you and I think he knows it too.»

«I did not! It was the Dusks, and they also stole my markers!» Shiro protested.

They got to the top of the tower, and Axel gestured the two kids to sit down, then he passed them the ice cream.

«Why do you do that?» Only when he took a seat, Roxas voiced his doubts. «Will you do it with me, too?»

«No way, I actually like you.» Shiro immediately answered. «But if the Nobodies complain, Father will talk to me.»

« _And_ will give you a lecture that will be heard even in the deepest pits of the Realm of Darkness.» Axel commented as he started eating his treat. «Now, ‘Shroom, I should have had this talk with you a long time ago. You want your father to stay by your side. You miss him. But it’s not this way you will get his attention, in the contrary. He could even decide that it will be Saix who lectures you next time. Or _Xigbar_.»

«She _misses_ him?» Roxas still didn’t get it.

«Missing. Got it memorized?» Axel explained. «It may be way too easy to get it.» He sighed. «Shiro knows she doesn’t have something. She lost it. She’s trying all she can to get it back. Even by breaking the rules or doing something everyone around her wouldn’t judge as socially acceptable.»

«But…» Something came to Roxas’s mind. «Axel, the Superior isn’t gone.»

«He _is_ for her. Xemnas isn’t Shiro’s father, his Somebody was. Assuming that what a boy I knew told _my_ Somebody years ago isn’t true…» Axel snorted. «Point is, Roxas, that as much as… why do I get stuck with the icky speech?... well, Shiro calls him Father. But a father doesn’t act like that, especially when a Somebody is little like her. A _parent_ doesn’t act like that. Even without really knowing it, Shiro noticed something’s wrong. Something’s missing.»

«Like with…?» Roxas’s hand went to his sternum.

«Exactly. You don’t remember losing your heart, but I bet you noticed something’s missing.»

Roxas frowned. It seemed a simple concept for how Axel had explained it, but there was still something he didn’t understand.

«But if you said the Superior’s name is Xemnas, why does Shiro call him Father?»

Axel almost dropped his ice cream. He rolled his eyes and covered his forehead with his free hand.

«See, Roxas, for every Somebody in the worlds, for every living being, there are two more Somebodies who… well, how to put it… made them? These peculiar Somebodies, who often, but not always, are a man and a woman, are named _parents_ of the Somebody they made.»

«Parents.» Roxas repeated. «I still don’t get it.»

«A moment of patience!» Axel swallowed a mouthful of ice cream and raised a hand. «And I’m even simplifying things… when a Somebody has just appeared in the worlds, they’re still tiny and frail. It takes a year before they stand up and maybe even more for them to speak. So, the Somebodies who made them usually take care of them as they grow up, or it can be other Somebodies and they are _still_ called parents, or they can be the grandparents or the older siblings. I knew Somebodies who were raised by a grandparent _and_ a sibling. But as I said, it’s complicated, and it also takes years. For example, I don’t think your Other was fully grown, and that’s why you look tinier than many of us.»

«… okay?» Roxas gestured to Axel to continue.

Parents. Growing. Grandparents. Siblings. All these words to explain a way Shiro had of saying things?

«Now, parents are called in different ways depending on their gender. If a parent is a male, like me or you, the Somebodies he made, his _children_ , call him Father or Dad or Pa.»

  1. Everything was clearer now. Shiro wasn’t fully grown yet. Shiro _needed her parents_.



Without thinking about it too much, Roxas realized something like that had to be even more dire than not having a heart – _he_ didn’t think he had it too bad, at least.

«You said it takes _two_ ,» he immediately asked Axel. «So why can’t Shiro stay with the other?»

«Because Mama is lost.»

It wasn’t Axel who had replied.

It was Shiro.

* * *

DAY 21

«Hey, Donald?»

Sora had been staring at the campfire for the whole evening, and only in that moment he had felt brave enough to speak his mind.

They had been lost for a few days in a world they did not recognize, without a Gummiship or lanes between worlds to go home or call for help, or look for Riku and the King, still lost in the Realm of Darkness.

«You mentioned I’m not the only one. That I’m not the only Keyblade wielder.» Sora raised his hand, letting the Kingdom Key materialize in his grip. «Where are the others gone?»

He almost regretted speaking when in the last sentence his voice started going down as if his throat was sore. But his throat _wasn’t_ sore.

Donald threw Goofy a look, then he gave a sigh, that sounded very much like a raspberry because of his bill.

«It’s not a nice story to tell.» Donald admitted. «We’d give you nightmares.»

«What if we look for them? They could help, they’re adults!» Sora insisted again, his voice once more ringing in all the wrong ways.

«They vanished ten years ago.» Goofy admitted. «One after another. They left to fight a battle. First Terra was gone, then young Ventus and in the end, Aqua, too.»

«Cloud mentioned a girl. He said that she’s in the clutches of _Organization XIII_. What’s Organization XIII?» Sora asked again.

Both Donald and Goofy shook their heads, letting him know they had never heard of such a thing.

«Ah-yuk, whatever that is, that doesn’t sound like a good place for a little girl.» Goofy finally commented. «We have to tell the King once we see him. Shiro would stay in a better place at the Castle, or with Master Yen Sid.»

«We will tell the King…» Donald concluded in turn, then he yawned.

Sora would have wanted to talk more, but whatever was happening to his voice had started to feel embarrassing. He decided to emulate Donald’s yawn (dang it! Why did it have to sound weird, too?) then he laid down on the lawn and waited for sleep to come.

* * *

_I don’t know why Father wanted me to go to Castle Oblivion with Axel and the others, yet I am here._

_This place sucks and they didn’t even let me take Mr. Kupo. There’s a girl, her name is Naminé and she’s also definitely not a Somebody, and I’m bored out of my wits. Roxas is fine, and Axel too, but I would like to know REAL kids for a change._

_Marluxia wants to lay a trap for some guy he calls the Keyblade’s Chosen. I really don’t know what Mar **klutz** ia is planning, but Axel says we gotta be cautious._

_Who knows why._

_There’s another boy in the castle. They call him Riku but he says it’s not his name._

_Axel says he’s not a real boy, he’s a puppet Vexen created, and the real one is somewhere around._

_I’d rather stick with Naminé, she has crayons at least._

_(Larxene is an ugly obnoxious witch.)_

_I don’t know what’s happening, but Naminé is gone, and Axel told me there’s traitors in the Organization and he’s taking care of them._

_For now he told me not to leave this room and stay safe._

_THERE’S STEPS OUTSIDE I’M SCARED._

_I’m hidden in a corner. I found a wooden sword on the floor… it looks like Roxas’s but there’s my name on the hilt._

_I know what to do._

* * *

DAY 51

Riku was ascending the stairs that separated him from the floor where he had left Naminé to take care of Sora when something quick and dressed in black leaped at him with a weapon.

He immediately thought about the Replica, but once he deflected the blow, thrown away the weapon and repelled his assailant, he realized he had been attacked by a mere child.

A girl maybe? Their hair was long, but the black coat didn’t tell much about the gender.

What had looked like a weapon to him bounced off a wall, with a thud that left nothing to imagination.

 _Wooden sword_.

«What are you doing here?» He approached the little one and helped them up. «It’s not a good place to play. I could have hurt you…»

«Are you the real one?» The child – girl! – swatted his hand away and retreated to a wall. «You’re not the puppet, are you?»

She acted strange, as if she had already seen him. She had had to know his Replica, definitely, and she did not seem to like him at all.

Riku dismissed the Soul Eater and made a step backwards. The child reminded him somewhat of Ansem, but she didn’t smell of darkness like he did. She seemed nothing but a normal kid.

«You’re a Somebody, aren’t you?» The girl recovered the wooden sword from where it had fallen off and pointed it at him, trying to defend herself. Riku could read the name _Shiro_ carved on the hilt.

«I’m _Riku_.» He shrugged. «And your name is Shiro, right?»

«Can you read minds?» Shiro lowered her toy.

«No, I’ve just read your sword.» Riku stifled a chuckle. «Could I read minds, I’d know why you asked me whether I’m somebody.»

Shiro rolled her eyes.

«Not somebody. _A Somebody_. A person. A person with a heart, like me.»

Shiro’s speech sounded pointless, but Riku nodded.

«What are you doing here, Shiro?» Riku made a couple small steps towards her.

«Uhm, Father says I could be the key to find… something.» The kid said. «But it’s been days I’m here and I found nothing but this sword. And the thing is, there’s my name on it. And it looks like a Keyblade, like the one my friend Roxas has…»

«Hang on, you know what Keyblades are?» Riku approached her again.

Shiro nodded.

«Roxas has one. He defeats Heartless with that. And at the end of the day, if he gathered enough hearts, he and Axel come for me and we go for ice cream.»

«Riku! Is that you?» The King’s voice echoed from the upper floor.

«What was that?» Shiro jerkily looked around. She didn’t seem to recognize the voice.

Riku made a few steps and reached the top of the staircase. Shiro hastily followed him, and almost screamed when she saw Mickey.

«What is that?» she exclaimed, instinctively raising her toy sword.

«Don’t worry, King Mickey is a friend.» Riku turned to her and made her lower the wooden weapon. «Your Majesty, I’ve found this girl on the staircase. She seems to know something about Keyblades…»

After a quick look at Shiro, Mickey’s eyes widened. It was as if he had just seen a ghost.

«No _way_ …» He grimaced, like if he was trying to say something he couldn’t explain. «Shiro…?»

«You know her?» Riku immediately asked.

«It’s the first time I see her.» Mickey rubbed the back of his head. «But yes, I do!» He raised a finger.

He approached Shiro and smiled.

«Your mother will be happy to know you’re safe. You do really look like her!»

There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

«Mama? Do you know where she is? Have you seen her?»

Mickey winced.

«I… might have a lead. But we can’t go to her now, not Riku and I alone.» He reached into one of his countless pockets and took something he put in Shiro’s hands.

Riku was immediately reminded of the Wayfinders the sailors back at the island crafted by stitching together the seashells, but that thing wasn’t made of seashells, it was pink and white stained glass.

«She made this for you when you were a baby. She gave it to me before she went searching for your father, hoping for me to find you first.»

Shiro stared at the piece of metal and glass Mickey had put in her hand, lightly touching it with the hand she wasn’t using to hold it, then she looked at the King and smiled.

«Thank you.»

Another voice, deeper, intervened in the conversation, and DiZ, the man who had led them in the castle, approached them.

«What are you waiting for? We have to leave, before…»

He stopped when he saw Shiro pocketing the Wayfinder.

« _That child_ …» he hissed, staring at her.

«What’s wrong?» Mickey turned to him, worried.

DiZ’s only visible eye and what was uncovered of his face were twisted with fury.

«The traitor’s spawn! --- _Xehanort…!_ »

He lunged for the girl, trying to seize her arm, but she jumped back and ran away. Riku tried to go after her – even if DiZ could have been right, he had no right to scare an innocent – but Shiro seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

«Now, I don’t think such behavior is acceptable in front of an eleven-year-old!» Mickey was telling the masked man. «And I have my reasons to think you were wrong. Shiro’s father, _that_ Shiro’s father, is not named Xehanort. His name is _Terra_ and he’s a Keyblade wielder like me. I know where that child is from, and who she is… and if she was here, it means the Organization might be _using_ her…»

«Shiro’s father… not Xehanort… his name is Terra… I know where that child is from…»

Through the door she had just crossed to escape from the man in red, Shiro could indistinctly hear King Mickey’s speech. He and Riku didn’t seem bad people, on the contrary… they seemed to know something about her parents!

She would have immediately come back to them, but the speed at which her conscience had screamed her “RUN!” made her decide not to move.

“ _We’re not being followed_.” Her conscience commented. “ _Why aren’t we being followed?_ ”

«Maybe we lost them.» Shiro put her back on the door and slid on the floor. «Riku seemed a cool guy, though. And that King mouse too.»

She looked around. The room she had found was completely new to her.

It had a somewhat round shape, there were symbols on the walls – identical to the one in the center of the glass star Mickey had given her, and there was a throne in the middle, of which she was facing the back.

“ _This room is strange_ ,” her conscience commented.

«You don’t say!» Shiro commented as she approached the throne. She held back a scream when she found out it was occupied by a sleeping boy, but her reaction was _nothing_ compared to the one her conscience had.

“ _HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF MONKEY MILK…_ ”

Shiro approached the boy. He looked like Roxas… no, he was the _spitting image_ of Roxas. Only his hair was slightly fairer and his clothes were different, and he had scars on arms and legs Shiro had never seen on her friend.

“ _Ven. Ventus is here. Ventus has been here all this time!_ ”

«Do you know him?» Shiro asked.

“ _You do. This man… this boy… he’s your parents’ best friend. He raised you as much as they did, you called him Unky!_ ”

«What does Unky mean?» Shiro approached the sleeping boy, then she clapped in front of his face. He didn’t even stir.

“ _Well, Unky means… uncle means… that your father called him little brother_.” Her conscience tried to explain. “ _He’s not really your father’s brother, though. Not by blood. He’s his chosen brother_.”

«Why won’t he wake up?» Shiro touched one of his arms and tried to shake him. «What if he knows where’s Mama?» He shook him again.

“ _Leave him be, Shiro._ ” Her conscience’s voice really sounded sad. “ _I can’t feel his heart. And it’s not like in Nobodies… something very, very bad must have happened. Until he doesn’t recover, he won’t open his eyes._ ”

«I wish he woke up.» Shiro mumbled.

She stared at the sleeping boy for a while, hoping for him to move despite what her conscience had told her, but nothing happened.

«Shiro!» Axel’s voice called from outside the door. «Come out, ‘Shroom! Things are going south!»

“ _Don’t tell him about this room!_ ” her conscience ordered her as Shiro walked to the door.

«But Axel’s a friend…» Shiro reached out for the handle.

“ _You heard the King. Xemnas isn’t your real father. And Axel does respond to him. He could harm Ventus, and if you really want him to wake up…_ ”

«Shiro, please, don’t make old Axel worry…» Axel called out again. He _did_ sound preoccupied.

“ _It’s our secret, Shiro, until we found a way to get back._ ”

«Our… secret?»

“ _Come on, Shiro, I’m the voice of your conscience. Don’t I have to tell you what’s right?_ ”

They weren’t wrong. If the sleeping boy really was a chance to get home… if he could have brought her back to Mama and Papa… Shiro wouldn’t have given him away.

She opened the door and found herself in an empty corridor. She started calling for Axel.

She would have gone back to him and Roxas, for the moment. Maybe, if they regained their hearts, if they regained their freedom, she could have helped them too to go home.

They were friends, after all, weren’t they?

* * *

DAY 71

_Hey, Roxas, man, did you hear? No survivors! Everybody at Castle Oblivion got KO'd! Heavy stuff._

Roxas still couldn’t explain the sheer indifference with which Demyx had told him everything that morning.

Or better, if he had to believe that he had not felt nothing because _he just couldn’t_ , well, it made sense.

But then why was Roxas hurting?

He wouldn’t miss Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen, Zexion and Lexaeus, but what about Axel and the ice cream? What about Shiro, who had even left without being allowed to take her stuffed Moogle?

Roxas didn’t even recall the _Superior_ showing any sign of suffering.

Again: why. Did. It. Hurt?

He could not imagine more days eating ice cream alone. If he only thought _that_ was supposed to be his future for who knew how long, away from the two people he had grown fond of…

… even completing missions and gathering hearts meant very little in the boy’s eyes.

He had dragged himself through the chore of the day – eliminating the shadow blobs that had infected Twilight Town – without really paying attention to it, reducing himself to the least he could do without Saix giving him a Demyx Lecture, and he was dragging his feet on the pavement hoping that _no one_ at the Castle would feel like chatting at his return.

Talking was the last thing he wanted to do.

The fact he was feeling observed even if he was in the lonely alley in which he had opened the Corridor didn’t help at all.

He had walked that lane many times, and apart from an old boiler room where three teenagers usually hanged out, and an apartment in the upper building where there was a name on the bell, but never came any light or noise, most of the time there wasn’t a living soul around.

Then, who…?

«Hey, Roxas!» A familiar voice called out from behind him.

Axel was a few steps behind, and Shiro was at his side, her black coat open to show the purple tee and black shorts (she just _couldn’t take_ to wear it), a wooden sword in a hand and her usual cheeky smirk.

«Why are you here all alone?» Shiro broke the silence again.

«You look like you've seen a ghost.» Axel added.

Roxas didn’t even know how to react. It was as it, until that moment, he had had his head and guts lined in lead, and the weight he had on him had disappeared all of a sudden.

Something whispered in his head he should have run to them and hugged them like Shiro did with Mr. Kupo when she played with it.

Almost reading his mind, Shiro raised her arms.

«If you don’t hug back, no ice cream today!»

«I thought you were gone…» Roxas stayed still, still at a loss for actions. «Castle Oblivion… the whole team

was annihilated...»

«Not ‘Shroom and I!» Axel grabbed Shiro’s shoulders with an arm and squeezed (“Axel, get off!”). «I’m tough, and Shiro’s the worlds’ champion of hide and seek!»

«You had me worried,» Roxas answered him, while Shiro wriggled out of Axel’s grip and squeezed _him_ hard with both arms.

Axel repeated him the usual line it was not possible for him to _really feel_ something, that he didn’t have the heart to worry, but Roxas didn’t pay much attention to him – for how fake those feelings could have felt in a Somebody’s eyes, they were real enough to him.

«I’ll go buy us some ice cream!»

* * *

DAY 74

_It’s only been two days I’m back at the Castle and it looks things have changed a lot since we left._

_Roxas is more outgoing – that’s what Axel said when we came back._

_While we were on our way back to the castle, he asked me about feeling things – worries, happiness, sadness. I don’t think I could explain it properly to him, but it seems he got it. He was rather pensive when I finished talking. I don’t know why, but he went back to his room and I was too tired to ask him questions._

_It’s been a while we haven’t seen Xion, number 14. Roxas says they’re a she, even if they don’t look like a girl in my opinion._

_Sounds like ~~they were~~ she was on a mission and no one saw ~~them~~ her return. Today Saix charged Roxas and Axel with finding ~~them~~ her._

Shiro left the corridor and shoved the black coat behind a bin. Axel probably would have scolded her one more time, but less time she spent with that asphyxiating trashbag on, the better she felt.

She convinced herself it was all the better she wasn’t wearing it, because a few steps after entering the main street, she heard kids talking about _the black coats_.

«I’m not making it up! They had those black coats that hid their faces, and I’ve heard them mention a _Fourteen_ from a distance. What if they’re the real thing?» A stocky dark-haired boy was talking to two friends.

«Pence, what the heck?» The tallest of the three, a boy with his head covered in straw-colored curls, rolled his eyes. «First it’s the Seven Wonders, now you think we ended up in _Scary Things_?»

«You’re to blame, Hayner.» The only girl in the group folded her arms. «You keep saying he’s the spitting image of Austin.»

«Olette, _please_ shut your trap!» Hayner smacked her on the arm.

Shiro slipped away, running towards the clock tower. She had to tell Axel everything as soon as possible, or that situation might have turned into some kind of trouble. Axel kept saying they could not be seen in public, but if Fourteen meant Xion, maybe they had gotten to that point so they could save her.

She arrived in the station plaza and started climbing the staircase. The agreement with Axel and Roxas was that, once the Corridor appeared, she had to get there when the clock struck seven, and she had already heard the seven tolls when she had approached the station.

She was on time.

«Oh, good. Look who’s here.»

It seemed an evening like many. Sitting on the balcony, Axel passing her a popsicle, the sunset warming the…

… _four of them_.

Xion almost seemed absent for how silent she was, and Shiro decided it was the moment to break the ice.

«Axel, what’s Scary Things?»

«Where did you hear it?» Axel almost flinched.

«A boy in the street, Hayner if I recall. He was telling his friend Pence they’re not in Scary Things.»

The older Nobody stifled a chuckle in a hand.

«Roxas, I think our searches got noticed.» He elbowed the younger boy. «Scary Things is a _movie_. A story told by Somebodies who pretend to be the characters. It came out when I was a kid, it’s about four boys and a girl who find out about a monster invasion. Probably Pence saw far too many strange things and now he’s convinced we’re all about to be attacked by the Gremlin Army.»

«The Heartless _do_ exist, so it’s not like Pence is wrong.» Roxas pointed out, then he turned serious and looked at his friend on the left. «Xion, you said nothing and ate nothing. Did something happen?»

«We're here for you if you want to get it off your chest.» Axel added, noticing the situation. «Right, kids?»

«Don’t worry, gremlins don’t exist.» Shiro reassured her. Her conscience had already repeated several times the difference between fact and fiction.

«Axel is right, that’s what friends are for.» Roxas concluded.

Xion, her face covered by the hood ever since the last time Shiro had seen her, stared at her feet.

«I can't... I can't use the Keyblade anymore.» She confessed. «And without it, I can't do my job.»

«What happened?» Roxas hardly let her finish.

Shiro felt immediately for Xion. Ever since she was eight, the Organization awaited for her to summon a Keyblade in her hand, but they had done nothing to her – it was as if they feared it would be lost forever if they did as much as hurt a hair on her head.

«I don’t know.» Xion answered to Roxas. «But if I don't defeat Heartless with the Keyblade, the hearts they release just find their way into other Heartless instead. I swat them in one place and they just pop up in another.»

«Is that why it’s that important?» Shiro raised her hand, and as usual the beam of light that came out of it started flashing like a bad lamp, then it faded altogether. «See, Xion? _I can’t_ , either.»

She looked at her again. Xion had thrown her hood back and… wait, that had not been her face at her introduction!

Roxas _was_ right – she was a girl indeed. She kinda looked like Naminé, but her hair was jet-black and shorter, and yet she looked familiar in another way.

«And you’re not in trouble?» Xion commented.

«Shiro here is peculiar. She _never_ summoned her Keyblade. It’s not like she lost it, she hasn’t gained it _yet_.» Axel grumbled. «And so much the better if she waits more. When I was eleven, the most dangerous thing I pulled off was blowing up snowmen with firecrackers. Even with a Keyblade, I doubt Shiro would make the numbers you two reach.»

Hearing “you two”, Xion turned her head to the left and sighed. She seemed about to… cry?

«Without the Keyblade I'm useless!» She burst out. «They're gonna turn me into a Dusk once they find out!»

Roxas stared at Xion, then he turned to Axel and Shiro.

«Is there anything we can do?»

«Maybe if I…» Shiro tried once more to summon _whatever flashed and faded in her hand_ , but she obtained nothing apart from the pathetic light. «She could… pretend… it’s hers… and not mine!» She clenched her teeth.

“ _Shiro, don’t_.” Her conscience whispered in her head. “ _Stop that_.”

«Shiro, stop that, don’t harm yourself.» Axel took her wrist and lowered her hand. He smiled. «I know you want to help, but this is one of the times when it’s not worth to put your own well-being on the line. We’ll think of something, don’t you worry.»

«But…» Shiro tried to evade Axel’s grip.

«With your fiery temper, now I really wonder what your parents were like.» Axel commented. «I bet they were heroes. But, Shiro, sometimes heroes put themselves into danger because their hearts lead them towards it without _them_ really taking notice. We do know you can use your heart. But try to use your head, you also have that.»

He let go of her hand and gave her a playful hit on the forehead with his palm.

«We’d better all use our heads.» Axel turned to Roxas and Xion. «We have four of them, don’t we? We’ll find something.»

They stayed silent for a while, thinking and eating their ice cream. Xion still looked visibly worried, but she had started eating, and every now and then looked at the other three.

Axel finished first, and was the first who spoke.

«’Shroom here made me think of something,» he said. «Xion, you said the others _don’t know_ you can’t summon your Keyblade. You said that you’ll be risking your own identity when they’ll find out, well, I say, not _when_ , but _if_ they find out.»

«If?» Roxas looked up. «What can we do, Axel?»

«What if you worked double duty, Roxas?» Axel looked in his eyes.

«Huh?» Roxas didn’t seem to understand.

«What do you mean, Axel?» Xion was confused too.

«Xion, stick with Roxas until you can control the Keyblade again. Make sure your missions are with him.» Axel explained. «Then, he can collect the hearts and nobody will ever have to know that you're not doing the same. If you bring to Saix the exact number of hearts you’d gather with two Keys, _I really don’t think_ he’ll be asking you _who_ got _how many_.»

«I can do it!» Roxas grinned and nodded.

«You don’t mind?» Xion’s face lit up.

«Of course not!»

Axel watched silently as the three kids kept talking to each other, finally serene after Xion’s worry. Shiro finished her ice cream and had gotten off her seat on the balcony to sit between Roxas and Xion, and had started complaining about how dreary Saix was with her and those two.

«When he speaks to me I feel like he’s pushing my head downwards, _uuuughhhh_ ,» Roxas was commenting with a grimace. « _You’re nooot gaaathering enooough heaaarts_.» He pushed his lower lip out in a pout, made an exaggerated frown, snatched the ice cream stick from Xion’s hands and crossed it with his own at the bridge of his nose. Shiro burst into giggles and Xion covered what little of Axel could see of her face with her hands, laughing as if she was ashamed about it.

«He wasn’t always like that.» Shiro took the sticks from Roxas’s hands. She seemed sad, and she probably was, considering she had _memorized_ how Saix had been a lifetime before. «He got that scar when I was nine, and after _that_ he got grumpy. He and Axel used to be friends, and then Axel remained alone.»

Roxas and Xion turned to Axel, both with undecipherable expressions.

«Oh, cheer up, you!» Axel immediately tried to calm them down. This wasn’t good – he had just managed to calm them down for five minutes and now they were worried again, and _for him_? «I’ve got you three mayhem gremlins for friends now!»

Roxas and Shiro laughed, Xion remained serious.

«Axel… does that mean you and I can be friends?» she asked him. She was still looking down, and Axel thanked heavens for that. He didn’t feel like looking in the eyes of the ghost of how his lost sister would have become.

«Well, yeah. Was there ever any doubt? Any friend of Roxas’s is a friend of mine.» He looked away.

«Axel… _thank you_.» This time, Xion spoke louder.

Axel raised his head and looked in her eyes. The girl had removed her hood…

… and he had been wrong.

She _did_ look like Kairi. Or at least, how Axel had imagined she would have become. But where Kairi’s hair had been just a shade darker than his red, and somewhat longer, Xion had a rather boyish cut and her hair was pitch-black, like Zack’s.

It was even rather hard to immediately identify her as a girl – now he understood why Shiro had struggled a little with her pronouns in the previous days.

Axel looked away again, then he hinted at a smile, got off the balcony and stood up.

«Come on, let’s RTC before they send out a search party for _us_.»

_Axel’s Diary_

_Looks like the plan is working for now. Saix has let the kids fight together for now, but what Shiro and Roxas told me leaves me worried._

_As for Xion’s face… I really thought I had seen her as HER when she entered the Round Room. And since then, she has always covered her head with the hood. I really wonder who she was before Xemnas found her._

_Also the fact Roxas DOESN’T look like Sora, if not very vaguely for that darker shade of blond and his brown eyebrows… I have so many questions, and I only wish Isa was here to help me sort out this mystery, like in the old movie he made me watch and watch when we were kids._

_Instead, the bastard who’s wearing his face has demanded something in return from the kids for allowing them to do their missions together._

_“As they’re working together, they’re supposed to be doing their job in less time,” he said. “So every time they’ll be coming back to the castle before scheduled… I want them in the Hall of Empty Melodies. And Shiro with them. Rubber bats in hand, they’ll have to teach the child to fight.”_

_… what happened to you, Isa?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scary Things is OBVIOUSLY the KH-verse "counterpart" of Stranger Things, but I've reimagined it as a kid-friendly retro movie with a dark cult, Gremlins, and maybe Tonberrys. (It's Isa's favorite movie, but shhhhh.) Also, Hayner, Pence and Olette do look like Stranger Things characters, so I had to make the comparison!
> 
> Yeah, Shiro's conscience is rather suspicious. Or maybe it's just a conscience, who knows? And as for Castle Oblivion...? Well, the castle is locked to anyone but Aqua, and it KINDA recognized her as Aqua's daughter... also, she was born there.


	8. Days In the Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last chapter we will upload before Halloween, and that's for sure, as we have to get ready for the Lucca Comics & Games next week, and even if all of The Legacy has been written (and also the first two chapters of the following story, The Journey) my translating work (BeaterNightFury here!) does take time, and we also have our costumes to finish, even just for mere maintenance.
> 
> Starting by this, all the following chapters of this story will have references and titles to Disney songs. Kudos if you recognized them!

DAY 117

«Come on, Shiro, bend those knees! Light on your feet!» Roxas weighed in his hands the rubber bat he was holding and made an upward slash. Shiro saw him coming, but she wasn’t fast enough to dodge and took the hit.

«How did you do that?» The girl sighed and rolled her eyes.

Roxas lowered his guard and decided it was time to make her laugh. Training was tiring enough for her, and _luckily_ that day, courtesy of Demyx slacking off and needing punishment, neither Saïx nor Xigbar had decided to watch, so he could allow himself to do some comedy.

«Hem-hem, never let your guard down, girl!» He lowered his voice and bent his legs, pushing his knees outwards in a passable imitation of Philoctetes, the fat satyr who trained heroes in the world in which he had been on that day. «Rule number eight: if it was easy, everybody would be doing it!»

«Yeah, it’d be easier to convince Wharf Rat to bathe every morning.» Shiro took her chance to take a breath. «Still, you could go easier on me. I’m not a Heartless!»

«Pray you’ll never find yourself in the same room with Xigbar and a _satyr_. I’ll never forget the smell!» Roxas pretended to vomit.

«Could be a nice couple. The rat and the goat.» Shiro chuckled. «I did see a mouse, though, in Castle Oblivion, and he didn’t smell. Not like Xigbar, at least.»

«Okay, the comedy break is over.» Roxas raised his guard again. «Shall we start over? This time you hit and I parry. On my three… one, two…»

He didn’t have time to say three. The door swung open and Xion entered the hall.

«Hey, guys!»

There was… _a dog_ with her. A bloodhound. A large, orange-furred animal, with a large green collar and a cheerful demeanor.

The dog immediately started running up and down the hall, then in circles around Shiro and Roxas, sniffing at their legs, then it jumped on Shiro’s chest and started licking her face.

«What the…?» Shiro immediately commented. «Down, you, down!»

Roxas had the feeling he had already seen that pooch somewhere – and he realized that he should have expected such a behavior.

«Saïx says we can keep him!» Xion happily announced. «I’ve heard him talk to Axel while I was coming here, looks like his Somebody was fond of dogs.»

«When I was little he always talked about the dog he had,» Shiro commented, trying to get the dog to stay down. «He said his dog’s name was Bolt. Does this one have a name, Xion?»

The girl shook her head.

«I haven’t come up with one yet. Have you heard the news, anyway?»

«No, what news?» Roxas really couldn’t imagine what his friend was talking about.

«They say there’s going to be no mission tomorrow. Vacation day.»

* * *

«Pluto saw her.» Riku announced in a flat tone. «He saw Shiro.»

He pulled out of his pockets some pictures, that showed Shiro in a bleak, grey hall, along with two teenagers, both wearing the same black coat Riku and Mickey were using as a disguise.

«That face is familiar!» Mickey pointed at the taller one, while ice seemed to be forming in his guts. «The hair is slightly darker, but… he looks like someone I knew.»

_He couldn’t be Ventus… could he?_

«Judging by the heights of the Nobodies, I think the fair-haired boy is Roxas. The other looks like a girl, but in no one of the pictures I could see her face.»

«Sora’s Nobody?» Mickey squinted. « _He looks nothing like Sora_. Normally when a Nobody keeps a human appearance… well, they keep _their own_. We have _seen_ the Nobodies of Ansem’s men, and they looked exactly like their Others, except maybe for some aging.»

«What could that mean?» Riku started scratching his hair, sticking two fingers under the blindfold he used to cover his eyes.

«I don’t know. But… those kids are armed, even if only with training weapons. I think they’re trying to get Shiro ready for something, and we can’t afford to wait. Can you try to take a better look? With your own eyes, if you can?»

* * *

DAY 149

_Xion didn’t come to get ice cream today. I don’t really know what happened, and she didn’t even want to talk about it to Roxas… I still was at the Castle when Xion came back in a bad shape and with her head down low, she ran to her room and didn’t even say me hello._

_I’ve heard her arguing with Saïx. Looks like he thinks Xion is a failure… a mistake for the Organization._

_I ran in the Grey Hall and shouted at him: “Stop it! Stop it right now! Xion is my friend and she is not a mistake!”, even if my conscience told and repeated me not to do it._

_I’ve never seen Saïx looking at me like that. Like, never ever._

_He looked like he was about to throw up._

DAY 150 – Roxas’s diary

_Xion didn't come to the clock tower again today. She and Saïx had some kind of argument._

_Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can't bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it's our pasts, because that's all we have to remember the pain of losing something. I don't remember my past, but the idea of losing the present – Axel or Xion or Shiro – scares me._

DAY 171

Roxas dismissed his Keyblade and checked the stone bridge carefully, looking for surviving Heartless.

The one he had just felled – and whose heart he had recovered – had been some kind of engine, as big as a building, manned by smaller minions, that had knocked out the Beast living in the castle before trying to empty its arsenal on Roxas.

Assuming that the Beast that Roxas had found out cold in the courtyard had not tired the immense Heartless out before Roxas could put his Keyblade to it.

_If_ Roxas had had a heart, he would have sworn part of it would have wanted to thank the Beast.

He probably would have done it, or maybe he just would have left an Elixir next to his paws while the master of the castle was out of it… but he no longer was alone and unconscious.

«I managed to keep them from… getting in…» he was telling Belle, the only human being living in the castle.

«Please, you must stop doing this. It's too much.» Belle answered him, trying to help him sitting up. «If something were to happen to you… I don't know what I'd…»

«Belle… I couldn't bear to see you or the others hurt…» the Beast panted. «I don't… want to lose you…»

From his hideout, Roxas stayed silent and watched them… so the Beast _wasn't fighting to protect the rose_ … he was protecting the people in the castle… protecting _Belle_! Xaldin said it was the _rose_ , but…

«Feh. Cloying nonsense.»

It was the very Xaldin who intervened, approaching Roxas with an expression of disgust twisting his face.

«When did you get here?» Despite his diminutive stature, Roxas tried to give the older Nobody a challenging look.

«That’s none of your concern.»

In the middle of the courtyard, Belle had helped the Beast to his feet and was taking him inside. The girl was murmuring something, a tune that Roxas had already heard her emitting, and that Axel, when Roxas had mentioned it to him, had described as a “lullaby”.

« _How in the midst of all this sorrow, can so much hope and love endure? I was innocent and certain, now I'm wiser but unsure…_ »

Belle’s first verses were unknown to Roxas, but after those four she changed to more familiar words, that she had already sung behind closed doors while he and Xion were busy exploring and hunting for shadows.

« _How does a moment last forever, how can a story never die? Is it love we must hold on to? Never easy, but we try_ …»

«How utterly ridiculous!» Xaldin snorted when the two vanished behind the doors.

«Love? What’s that?» It was the first time Roxas heard about it.

« It's an emotion.» Xaldin commented. «The one deluding those two as we speak.»

«Oh…» Roxas pretended to have it clear, but that was another question he would have asked Axel.

Shiro thought she would have _seen_ Roxas coming, but that time her friend arrived announced by a strong stench of smoke.

«Hey, here comes the hard worker!» Axel exclaimed, holding his nose with the hand he wasn’t using for the ice cream. «Did Xaldin make you sweep chimneys?»

«Xion around?» Roxas let the jab slip off him.

Axel remained in silence and Shiro shook her head.

«Oh…» Roxas sat down, looking down to his shoes.

«Somebody's gotta talk to that girl.» Axel commented. «Shiro, you’re the Somebody here. Why don’t you lend her your conscience? It could work.»

« _Axel!_ » Shiro immediately replied. As if _conscience_ could be lent… still, somewhere in her head, the disembodied voice was laughing.

«It's her choice if she wants to come with us or not.» Roxas sided with Shiro.

«I guess that’s fair.» Axel, too, looked down.

Shiro thought it was for the best to change the topic of the conversation.

«What’s up with you, Roxas? You stink like Axel on a bad hair day!»

«HEY!» Axel only looked up to give Shiro a bad look.

«A huge bomb-throwing Heartless who wanted a piece of me, that’s what happened.» Roxas looked at Shiro and grinned. «Now we get back to the castle it’s shower time for me, promise.»

He turned serious.

«Axel, I need to ask you something.»

«What's up? Did something happen?»

«Nah, it's just...» Roxas shook his head. «This is gonna sound stupid. Remember Belle, the girl of the lullaby? _How does a moment last forever, how can a story never die_ … I’ve heard how the song continues.»

It wasn’t the first time Roxas mentioned Belle. Shiro would have liked to know her: like she was the only Somebody in a castle of Nobodies, Belle was the only person in a castle in which the only occupants were a beast and talking furniture. Sounded like the Beast and the objects were still Somebodies, as far as Roxas and Xion had explained to her, but still…

… that story was pure nonsense, so it was understandable Roxas knew nothing about it.

«So how does the song sound like?» Shiro asked Roxas.

«Is it love we must hold on to? Never easy, but we try.» Roxas recited. «Do you know what love is?»

«'Scuse me?» Axel almost jumped on the spot.

«I found out about love on today's mission… that it's something powerful.» Roxas said again.

«Well, love is what keeps parents and children together, for example.» Shiro intervened immediately. «But you said that at that castle…»

«Well, there’s the teapot and the cup, but I’m not talking about them.» Roxas mumbled. Shiro still had to understand how could a teapot and a cup be a family, but she had heard stories far more far-fetched than that, and her conscience had confirmed her that could have happened.

«That's true. It is. But I'll never get to experience it.» Axel made a sad face, as if the mouthful of ice cream he had just bitten off had turned out to be bitter.

«Nobodies can't love?» Roxas asked in a quieter tone.

«You need a heart, man.» Axel sighed. «Shiro here could become so fond of us she’d tie her own ankle to mine or yours, yet _not even the Superior_ , who is Father to her, could return it. No… love is what happens when there’s something really special between people… we’re friends, yes, but when there’s love, that’s called a _family_. And… no, we’re no family, and I don’t think we will ever be.»

Roxas looked down to his shoes again, visibly resigned. Shiro asked herself just why Axel was looking so down – and yet _she had been repeated all her life that Nobodies had no feelings, even in front of moments like that_ – and returned her focus on her snack.

Then Roxas looked up.

«If I had a heart, you think I could love somebody?»

Axel stayed silent for a moment, his gaze lost on the twilit horizon.

«Once Kingdom Hearts is complete… you'll be able to do all kinds of things.»

* * *

_How does a moment last forever?... How can a story never die?... Is it love we must hold on to?... Never easy, but we try…_

Axel entered his room and slammed the door after himself. He would have set himself on fire, before Shiro and Roxas could see him cry…

… and just like always since almost a decade, the lump rose in his throat but tears never came.

He threw himself on the bed and stared at the floor. It had been _years_ since memories didn’t hurt that much, and that year had marked the arrival of Xion, who despite her darker hair had made him think a lot of how Kairi would have been, had she grown up… and now Roxas had started understanding how life went, and despite Axel was glad he could act as a big brother again – Roxas and Xion were the age Kairi would have been, had she been still with them, his head had always repeated to him – if he had had a heart, he was sure the sorrow would have killed him.

Once Kingdom Hearts would have been complete, how was he going to face his friends?

* * *

The ceiling over Kairi glistened with stars.

Ever since she had arrived to the Islands, with no memory beyond her name, she had had the worst fear of the dark in her kindergarten class, and the fluorescent stars on the ceiling had been one of the first decorations in her room, just after the bed and a coat of fresh paint on the walls.

Every time she had slept over at Riku’s or at the place of the fishermen’s son on the outskirts, there had always been a nightlight at the bottom of her backpack. Now she was alone, the night terrors had become more common.

Including her oldest one, the one that woke her up with anguish and cold sweat.

A boy screaming her name, yelling at her to run, an iron grip around her wrist, a cry of pain. One more detail had come to her mind this time – just before the cry, the “RUN!”, she had bitten someone’s hand so hard she had drawn blood.

The girl sat up and stared at the floor.

How could she know if that story had really happened?

* * *

DAY 172

_Xion is sick again._

_I thought Axel wasn’t okay either, yesterday, when he locked himself up in his room and didn’t let anyone in, but this morning he was off on a mission again, so at least now he’s better._

_Xion won’t wake up. Roxas is worried, and I repeat, WORRIED, even if Axel says Nobodies don’t worry. He argued with Saix, telling him that Xion comes before the mission – and he’s right, even if he risked trouble, and I told him I would make sure that Xion was OK._

_I was still in Xion’s room when he came back, and he told me about the fat purple cat he met in Wonderland._

_Looked like it really had nine lives like some people say, my conscience commented._

_(Oh, and now Xion’s asleep, guess who’s taking care of the doggo?)_

DAY 195

_Despite Xion has woken up a few days ago, she still is unfit for duty._

_The fact the puppy she found a couple months ago has run away from the Castle, despite both her and I were there (I think he ran off while we were preparing his meal) isn’t helping._

_How can Axel be so convinced “Nobodies don’t feel”? Father maybe, or Saix, even if Saix wasn’t that bad until a few years ago._

_Maybe when he got his face slashed, his grey matter got damaged or something. I’ve heard somewhere that if the nose gets damaged, the brain could be harmed too…_

* * *

Seven months.

_Seven months_ had passed since Ansem had been defeated, the Heartless had started retreating from the ruins of the borough, and since Cloud’s old baseball teammate Squall, who now went by Leon, had started cleaning up Hollow Bastion from the remains of the invasion.

Some of the houses were still standing and could be used: Aerith had regained hers, just like Justice Ilyas and Merlin the wizard, but many more of the refugees back in their home world had had to make do with whichever shelter could be found, often in the houses of other settlers, until their homes could not be recovered.

Cloud was one of them: as it seemed, his own house had been burned to the ground.

He didn’t like the idea of staying at the Bastion, but Aerith (he would have _never_ asked to stay at her place… not after who had been a _regular_ there…) had insisted they still needed his help, and Justice Ilyas had offered him the guestroom.

«Listen here, kid, when my son will come home, _because he will_ , if he finds out I’ve let one of his friends sleep in the ruins, he’ll give me two black eyes with my own gardening shovel!» the magistrate had reproached him, almost dragging him inside by the clothes.

They weren’t the only ones occupying the house: Ilyas was taking care of a very small boy he had found out on his doorstep a few weeks before – a bundle with dark skin and curly hair whose only clue about an identity was the name “Finn” written with a marker on the blanket he had been swaddled in.

Whoever had left him there probably had no doubts about the justice’s parenting abilities.

«The irony is, he wasn’t the first one, just the last.» Ilyas had snorted, trying to make sure Finn burped. «In this same street, where houses are still standing, have been found a seven-year-old named Denzel, a toothless kiddo named Austin, both with no memory of what happened to them, and a toddler with Raphael written on his shirt. I don’t know if they’re effectively their birth names, also because… weren’t those the names of the four main characters in that old movie of which you boys wore out the VHS? Like… Strange Tales or stuff like that?»

« _Scary Things_ , Sir.»

Ilyas had gotten it right. Raphael, Denzel, Austin and Finn – along with their friend “Fourteen” had been the main characters in that old movie. And it had been Isa, who always had been obsessed with it (even the incorruptible had to have a weak spot) who had showed the movie to the other three. He had even come up with it as a B plan for Halloween when his werewolf mask had sent Kairi hiding in the guestroom. _What if we go as the Scary Things boys and Aerith can be Fourteen?_

«It’s not the first time refugees appear in the night.» The justice murmured. «Some of them _lived_ here, some didn’t, and as a magistrate and a person I couldn’t care less, they’re lives and if we can save them from those living shadows…»

«Heartless, Your Honor…»

«… irrelevant, both the former and the latter. I said, even if the newcomers didn’t live here, in your opinion how many other worlds out there have been destroyed by these _Heartless_ and how many people are there stranded like we were ten years ago? Point is… these four children, in _this street_ … I don’t want to hope, Cloud, but do you think Isa may be behind this?»

Cloud did not answer. He had vague memories of the mysterious Saïx guy who had helped him and Zack escaping some years before. A part of him could have sworn he had seen his face, another openly denied it.

He remembered Zack telling him they would have taken Shiro away, but then… he had not come, and he and Zack had found themselves alone and surrounded by enemies.

«I… don’t… know…» Cloud leaned on a chair and sat down. Ilyas was still busy with Finn, but gave him a look.

«Cloud, _listen_. Many of this city are gone, and forever. You and Zack were the first to disappear, and yet here you are. I want to hope… just not for my son. Lea, little Kairi, their grandmother, my colleagues of the tribunal…»

«I’ve found another refugee, a kid from the borough, something like last week…» Cloud snorted, trying to change the topic of the conversation. «They won’t come home. Something like… they have nothing left here or something. They started working at an ice cream place in a world called Twilight Town, and they hope to save up for their own pub or stuff like that.»

«… _Cloud_ …»

« _Your Honor_ …»

Seven months.

It was seven months Cloud searched for missing people without really telling anyone.

It was no longer just Shiro.

Genesis, whom no one had seen anymore after the Bastion catastrophe.

Sephiroth, who still harbored madness within even after almost ten years.

Lea and Isa, Cheese and Chalk, who probably were lost somewhere out there.

A boy of which Cloud remembered only a smile, a tiny calloused hand shaking his own, an untouched innocence that had stayed in his mind and heart.

And three heroes – Terra, Ventus and Aqua. _Three friends_. He had to take Shiro back to them – to her family.

«Kid, I know you’ve had to grow up quickly, but staying stoic won’t help you solve your problems.» The justice interrupted his thoughts. «Many people here think your problems are theirs as well. Remember when Zack gifted to you his nanshiki ball, or when he left you his uniform because he knew it would have been too expensive for your mother’s finances?»

Silence was Cloud’s only answer.

«I don’t need you to answer me now.» Ilyas shifted Finn in his arms and went upstairs, probably to put the little one in bed. «But… think about it. No one of us is strong enough not to need some kind of help.»

And he left Cloud alone with his thoughts.

* * *

DAY 255

«Man, time flies…»

«So, you got the number memorized, do ya?»

Shiro looked at the two boys talking, Roxas and Axel, interacting with each other as if they weren’t feeling the absence on that day. It was easy for them to get distracted – missions every day, away from the pristine white walls and from the perennially black sky, for them it was easy to forget that every day that passed, the tension was so thick one could have cut it with a knife.

Or maybe, they had not forgotten it, and it was true that Nobodies couldn’t feel worry, or at least felt it less than her.

Or maybe again, Roxas didn’t _want_ to think about it.

And not even Axel, whom Shiro had never seen smiling like that.

«Hey, kids. Bet you don’t know _why the sun sets red…_ »

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess a couple fond readers MIGHT have noticed a nod to their own works... YEAH YOU SAW WELL, and if you didn't, find it, it was somewhere in here!


	9. I've Got No Strings

DAY 276

«Are you…?»

«Riku. Sora’s friend.»

He didn’t expect the Organization’s fugitive to use _that world_ as a shelter, or that she would have slept in the treehouse he, Sora and Kairi had used several times to play pirates… and yet Xion was there.

A moment before, she had tried to vanish, running for the islet where Riku and Sora had fought their duels, a moment later, she had collapsed to the ground, clutching her head in her hands, as if she had suddenly felt sick.

He had laid her on the ground and knelt, waiting for her to come to, and now it had simply been enough for Riku to mention Sora for Xion to sit up immediately.

«Sora? _You know Sora_?»

Riku stood up again, propping himself up with a hand on a knee. «Yeah.» He sighed.

That syllable was an euphemism, but he was one of the few in the worlds who remembered him, one of the few who still knew details about his life, and if that… if that girl, because after what Riku had seen the previous year it mattered little how one could come to life, even if she had been defined as a puppet, she _definitely_ looked alive to Riku, as alive as he was.

She probably deserved to be alive more than he did.

«Thank you.» Xion stood up, too. «You saved me… but I don't know why you did.»

_Also because she didn’t seem to have received much human decency, in her life._

«I guess… I just felt like it.» Riku answered her, then he started walking away. He felt filthy, trying to take her to DiZ like that, but he would have smashed his own skull before trying to do it by force.

That _girl_ seemed to have seen far too much abuse for a lifetime, for how she moved and how she spoke.

He heard her steps behind him, then she intervened again.

« Riku, please… tell me more about Sora. And… that girl he's always with.»

«You mean Kairi.» Riku did not even turn.

«That's right. She's the one who looks so much like me.»

Riku forced himself to stay still, to not betray his tension, to stay unperturbed. He had already made way too many mistakes a year before, put the people who mattered most in his life into danger, and even if Kairi now was home and safe, it was _h-i-s-f-a-u-l-t_ if Sora had had to create a Nobody to save her, _h-i-s-f-a-u-l-t_ if Roxas and Xion existed and risked to make Sora die with their very presence.

He could imagine Sora catching him by the wrist and telling him all of that would have changed nothing between them. He knew _for sure_ Kairi was still waiting for him. _For them_. A part of his heart was still convinced that everything could have come back as it had been, and that…

 _Don’t even think about it, you idiot. You tossed your chance out of the window when you hurt them both_.

«To Sora, she's someone very special…» _And same goes for me_ , Riku would have added, but he felt he had already said too much. He turned to Xion and made two steps towards her, but he didn’t get any closer.

DiZ had too often talked about the Organization as the enemy… Riku now only wanted to understand if the girl wanted answers for herself, or if the Nobodies were trying to hurt him and his friends again.

«I remember things about the two of them.» Xion’s breath had started turning labored. «But I'm nothing more than a puppet… something that somebody created.» She turned her back to Riku again, leaning against one of the trees that Sora used to climb. «So why would I have their memories?» She turned to him. «Do you know where Sora is now?»

«That secret stays with me.» Riku instinctively answered. He would have never given his… _best friend_ … away…

«You don’t trust me, do you?» Xion avoided his gaze again.

«I’ve heard you’re keeping _Somebody_ captive in your stronghold. Isn’t that so?» Riku replied.

«Shiro is the Superior’s child. Somebodies do stay with their parents when they’re little.» Xion mechanically replied.

«No she isn’t.» Riku dragged his feet on the sand. «I don’t know who told you all of this, but whoever did, either lied to you or believes a lie. _Terra_ is her father’s name. He carries a Keyblade, like you and Roxas. He vanished off the worlds when Shiro was one year old… maybe he died, maybe he’s just gone, but…»

Xion tensed up, and through the black mesh of the blindfold, Riku saw her clenching a fist.

«The Keyblade. _It’s not like she lost it, she hasn’t gained it yet_. Xemnas is waiting for Shiro to summon a Keyblade!»

Xion spent the following ten minutes explaining things to Riku. Of how, according to Axel, it had been several years since the kid emitted a beam of light from her right hand that started flashing and died out like a broken lightbulb before it could solidify into a weapon, of the training regime imposed every evening to the little girl, until then useless, by another Organization member who answered to the name Saïx, either in presence of Roxas or Xion, or _both_ whenever possible, of the fact Shiro had _memory_ of a time Saïx had been different, of her talking to herself or to her stuffed Moogle at least once a day…

«We could have taken her away…» Riku murmured.

In turn, he explained to Xion of how she carried within herself Sora’s memories of Kairi – the ones he needed to wake up. He admitted to her that his best friend would have never woken up, had what she had taken not been given back.

Even through the blindfold, he could see how distraught she was. She probably had not noticed the abuse perpetrated on her, but now she had opened her eyes on how it had been on someone close to her.

A part of Riku’s heart would have wanted to use this weak spot as a leverage – to use Xion’s intention to help her little friend to take Xion and Roxas to Sora and Shiro to safety. It was the best thing to do – the right thing.

So why did another part of his heart abhor the mere thought of such a choice? Why, despite the noble end, Riku felt like a monster at the thought of hurting a Nobody and a Replica – hurting _two kids his age_?

DiZ may have thought Nobodies were not worthy of living, but what Pluto’s bug had shown him, the reactions of when he had observed those two, the very worry of Xion for Shiro, for a _person_ , told a different story.

Xion leant against the tree again, her gaze fixated on the sea. For a few moments, the island fell into silence, apart from the rhythmic sound of the waves.

« _Someday… our fight will be won, then… we’ll stand in the sun and the bright afternoon…_ » Xion had started mumbling, the words hardly discernible against all the noises of the island. «… _‘til then, on days when the sun is gone… we’ll hang on… wish upon the moon…_ »

While she pronounced those words, she started giving a tone to what she was saying, until Riku recognized the lyrics. It was a song, and not any song – the song Sora and Kairi had sung at the kindergarten graduation ceremony.

That was the evidence of what DiZ had told him – Xion had _really_ stolen Sora part of his mind, important moments of his life, like that day of ten years before in which Riku had understood he wasn’t going to lose his best friend forever.

If only he had managed to hold him tight as he had promised himself to do…

He bit his lip and tried to stay calm. Xion _wouldn’t have seen him cry_ …

The beach fell silent again, then the girl burst into sobs. She stopped crying, then looked at Riku.

«Do you hate me for taking your friend away from you?» She asked him.

 _No, I hate myself because I drove him away_ , Riku would have wanted to answer, but instead he said: «Nah. I guess… I'm just sad.»

He felt his eyes full of tears and keeping normal his tone of voice seemed the most strenuous struggle ever. He was grateful for his blindfold – other than preventing him from seeing his own darkness, it prevented the others to see his tears.

_The answer you come up with can't just be right for you._

_It has to be one that works best for everybody._

_You and your friends and everyone else._

* * *

DAY 298

_Xion is back. Axel said he found her in Twilight Town and that she fainted right after he saw her._

_Roxas arrived later and he was LIVID. He tried to explain me something, but Axel stated it was bedtime for me and sent me to my room._

_Tomorrow I’ll go looking for Axel and talk to him._

* * *

DAY 299

“ _Shiro, I don’t think this is a good idea_ ”, her conscience had started repeating in her head ever since she had decided to put a tail on Axel that morning.

«Shut up, you!» Shiro whispered to them, then she crouched against a doorway. Axel didn’t look eager to talk, and Roxas had locked himself up in his room.

«If you could save one of them… why would you choose the puppet?»

It wasn’t Axel’s voice. It was _Saïx’s_.

“ _Well done, Shiro. What if he sees you? How will you explain that you were eavesdropping?_ ”, her conscience protested at her.

« _I’m not dropping any eaves. This is my home, I could be anywhere_.» Shiro replied. She didn’t understood what was the _puppet_ Saïx was talking about, but she hoped it wasn’t Mr. Kupo – it was the only doll in the castle and it would have broken her heart had someone thrown it away, even if it was full of darns.

«Does she still look like a thing to you?» Axel contradicted Saïx, his voice hardly higher than a whisper. «I’ve seen her _crying_ , Isa. And you may have seen the way she hugs Shiro tight every night when we RTC, the way those three joke when they train in the Hall. If I didn’t know the truth, _I freaking swear_ , I would have staked my life saying she’s a Somebody. That the two of them are.»

« _What have Xion and Roxas got to do with dummies_?» Shiro shook her head, trying to ask her conscience.

That talk had no sense – a moment before they were talking about a dummy to throw away, a moment later Axel had taken up the old argument about Saïx hating everybody, and now Axel was convinced Roxas and Xion were people?

«Tell me, _Lea_ , what do you see when you look at Number XIV’s face? Who do you see?»

For all that time, Saix had remained with his back against the wall and his arms folded, but he made two steps towards Axel.

“ _Since when have they started using their own names again?_ ”, her conscience pointed out to Shiro. “ _Especially when you’re not supposed to use them!_ ”

« _Xion_ has blue eyes, a round face, and she looks like she could never hurt a fly not even if she wanted to. She has short hair. If she wasn’t dark-haired, I’d say she’d be the spitting image of…» Axel began, but Saïx didn’t let him finish.

«… _your sister_?» He interrupted him. «Your sister, had she actually lived to be fifteen?»

Saix had hardly moved, but Axel was flinching as if someone had slapped him hard on the face.

« _What is he talking about_?» Shiro still had no clue.

“ _A sister. That’s how you call a sibling when they’re a girl._ ” Her conscience intercepted her immediately. “ _It’s brother when they’re a boy. Don’t start asking around_.”

«Roxas and Shiro also see her like that…» Axel tried to justify himself.

«That doesn’t change anything, Lea. SHE’S DEAD! DEAD! Stop chasing ghosts!» Shiro could see a flash of fury in Saix’s eyes. Shiro had to clench her fists to stay silent and still, and she was almost certain something else, too, was holding her still.

Axel made two steps backwards, raising his shoulders and arms as if he was about to summon his weapons. He didn’t, but Shiro noticed, from his shoulders, that he had started shaking.

Saïx stepped forward, apparently calmer, but his eyes had not left Axel’s gaze for a moment.

«Or put it this way. Which would you rather suffer the loss of: some make-believe friendship, or _a real one_?»

Shiro saw Axel’s tension slowly fade, as if he was drooping. Saix kept walking past him.

«There is simply too much on the line… _Lea_.»

* * *

DAY 300

It seemed the usual routine at Castle that Never Was had begun again, but Roxas still kept staying on his own.

Xion didn’t even know if he was mad at Axel or just _confused_. She didn’t even know whether the problem could have involved…

«Is something the matter, Shiro?»

The girl was more inattentive than usual in her daily fencing practice. It was the third time that, one-on-one against Xion, Shiro fell on the floor or lost her weapon.

«Y-yeah, why?» Shiro tried to stand up.

«Doesn’t seem so to me.» Xion helped her up. «You look a little down in the dumps. Did something happen?»

«I think Saïx wants to throw Mr. Kupo away.» She didn’t seem so sure of what she was saying, but probably it wasn’t the _Moogle doll_ Number Seven was talking about. And yet there was a reason for the child to worry.

Shiro sighed.

«I don’t want Mr. Kupo to leave. He’s _my friend_!» She leant against one of the walls and stared at Xion.

If a moment before, Xion had been convinced that Shiro knew nothing, now she couldn’t say whether the child was convinced she would lose her toy or if she was trying to manifest her concern without worrying _her_.

«Shiro, come on… he’s not your only friend.»

«So what?» the twelve-year-old’s face contorted in a grimace. «Roxas is Roxas. Axel is Axel. Riku is Riku. No one of them is you!»

Definitely number two. But something else drew Xion’s attention.

«You know Riku?»

«Yeah!» Shiro nodded, two rivulets of tears on her face.

Xion decided she had to distract her – this could have been a chance.

«I think he’s looking for your father, Shiro. That the Superior is not your father, his name is…»

«Terra, I know.» Shiro mimicked Axel’s pointing gesture. «I got it memorized. A guy named King Mickey told me he knows my mama, too.»

Xion remembered Axel telling her that small Somebodies were not… what was the word?... self-sufficient?, and she thought that Shiro, who reached her nose if she stood upright, still had a long way to go before being grown enough, but she seemed to reach the conclusions she had to get to before Xion could expect her to.

«Riku knows much.» Xion walked to a bench at the edge of the room and gestured to Shiro to sit. «But… he’s looking for his best friend. For a way to save him. I think the Superior wants to…»

Xion blew on her empty palm.

«I don’t think he wants to snuff out just him.» Shiro stared at her own boots. «And Saïx said that Axel only likes you because you look like his sister… like the Somebody his Other grew up with. But I think this can’t be, Xion, this just can’t be. You’re _you_.»

Xion was about to reply, but what Shiro had just said was something _she didn’t know_. She knew she looked like Kairi, Sora’s special person, the one he probably _loved_ , but she didn’t know that Axel… that Axel’s Somebody had grown up with Somebody who looked like her.

«Saïx says that Axel’s sister is dead. That she was erased long ago and she never got to be fifteen. He says that… Axel should stop going after ghosts.»

Xion said nothing. She could not believe Axel had grown on her just because of what she looked like… and like Shiro, she just could not believe it. No matter how memories were important to Nobodies, it was too much even for Axel to cling like that to one.

But that had opened yet another mystery. There _was_ someone she did look like, and she was very much alive.

«Shiro, did Saïx say her name? Axel’s sister’s name?»

The preteen shook her head.

«Sora and Riku’s friend is named Kairi. She looks _just like me_ , but with red hair, not like Axel but slightly darker.» Xion murmured. «Shiro, what if it’s her? What if she didn’t die, but just disappear and reappear somewhere else?»

«I don’t know… I cannot know…» Shiro answered her after a few moments in which she seemed to be thinking about it. «But… my conscience says that if Axel goes looking for her, she might be in danger.»

«Yeah, like Riku says. A Somebody’s place is not among Nobodies.» Xion leaned against the wall behind the bench. «Shiro… if Axel ever gets back his heart, will you tell him about Kairi? Can you promise me that?»

Shiro raised her right hand in an almost solemn gesture.

«Shadows and Bandits and a Large Body’s head, if I break my promise I’ll die ‘til I’m dead!»

* * *

DAY 321

_Xion’s Diary_

_Axel's always helping me out, so I just assumed he would again. How long has he known about me? Maybe since long before we met in Castle Oblivion. But he told me to think for myself. I was so happy. But now, as I get stronger, Roxas keeps getting weaker. I shouldn't exist anymore. They say that Nobodies were never meant to exist, but I'm the real affront._

_But before I'm gone, I want to help Roxas and Axel. Even just a little. And Shiro… she has to leave Castle That Never Was. I don’t care if Axel today told me the last one who tried vanished without leaving any trace – for what my destiny is going to be, if I can help someone, that’s what I’m going to do. She does not deserve to be here, no matter how fond we are of her… she has to leave this place and start living. She has a right to it, more than all of us put together._

_I think the boy I saw today is the same Sora from my memories._

* * *

DAY 352

Axel pushed the heavy iron gate and rushed into the graveyard.

Roxas and Xion were still there, both with glassy eyes, as if they were looking at their opponent without really seeing them, with the determined look of someone who wanted to finish the mission and get home… and their Keyblades locked in a stalemate. As opponents. In what had all the looks to become a last blood fight.

There was no time to waste – if either prevailed, the other could have been seriously wounded… or worse…

Well, Axel was _done_ with losing people close to him.

He ran to them, almost without thinking, raising his chakrams as improvised shields.

«STOP, BOTH OF YOU!»

He ran between the two, blocking Roxas’s Keyblade with his left weapon and Xion’s with the right one, then he pushed both kids back.

Roxas looked to be the first who noticed that, all that time, he had drawn his own weapon against his friend.

«What are you doing here?» Xion, despite realizing it later, was also the one who could convert astonishment into words. «The Heartless I was fighting… _it was you_?»

She looked down, while – it was written all over her face – the astonishment melted into disgust.

Axel looked at her, then he tried to do his best to explain things to Roxas. Xion had certainly understood the truth for herself – but what about him? Who was stuck with the icky job to give the boy a rude awakening?

«This mission was a setup. It was rigged so you two would battle each other.»

There wasn’t much else to explain, not there. Axel opened a Corridor to Twilight Town, sent Roxas to get ice cream, and opened another Corridor for Shiro to reach them. He knew the child would have asked questions about _why_ were they back so soon, but he hoped he could fool her with a “I guess the Heartless had been signaled by dumbass Demyx”.

Shiro emerged from the dark passageway rather soon, and like every day when everyone was there, Xion waited for her to get rid of the coat and hugged her tight. That was how those two said hello to each other, every day, and if _the others could only see them_ … if only Saïx could have seen them… how many times, when school was over for the day, they had seen Kairi greeting her deskmate like that?

«Why so early?» Shiro looked at Xion and Axel, visibly puzzled.

«Whoever reported a Heartless over there was either wrong or lying.» Axel placed a hand on his hip and snorted. _And that wasn’t exactly a lie_.

Roxas came back with the ice cream, and no one had nothing to say anymore until Xion, who had been eating rather quickly, raised a hand to her temple and cried out in pain: «Brain freeze!»

«Been a while since we all hung out like this, huh?» Roxas commented once Xion finished complaining and rubbing her head. _Those three_ … Axel found hard to hold back laughter, especially now that Shiro, sitting between her two older friends, had finished her ice cream and had started making funny faces clutching the stick between her teeth.

«Well, we have had our share of drama…» He forced himself to let a grin slip. He almost expected that Shiro would contradict him, feigning offense and blurting out: “Speak for yourselves!”, but the kid ( _Twelve. She had turned twelve years old the previous winter and he could hardly wrap his head around it…_ ) only nodded, the stick still between her teeth, saying nothing. Axel wondered how much Shiro felt and how much she could _understand_ of what was happening at the Castle… he had been about her age when Lea had stopped referring to himself as a child.

«If only things stayed like this,» Xion commented, staring at the horizon. Just listening to her tone of speech, Axel could discern she _knew_ her days were numbered.

«What if we all ran off?» Roxas intervened.

«What?» Xion hardly let him finish.

«The four of us. Then we could always be together.» Roxas turned to the girls and hinted at a hopeful grin.

«We don't have any place to run.» Xion looked down.

«We do! We could… look for Papa!» Shiro put a hand on her arm. «The real one. Or Mama, if we can find her first. I think they’d be happy to let you stay, especially if you take me home!»

She stayed silent for a moment, probably thinking.

«And they have Keyblades too!»

«Shiro, think for a moment. In all the worlds we know, that the Organization knows, we have found no trace of other Keyblade wielders.» Unexpectedly, Xion turned out to be the voice of reason again. «If we run off we’ll be followed. And who do you think will be faster? Us without a lead, or whoever Xemnas sends after us? We need help from outside – someone who’d really have a chance against…»

Even without Xion finishing the sentence, what she was talking about was clear as day. Xemnas and his inner circle wouldn’t have been easy to defeat.

«Heh, I think Xion may be right this time.» Roxas hung down his head in surrender.

The three kids stayed there, silent and defeated, then Shiro raised her arms and hugged Xion with her left arm and Roxas with her right.

«You’ll never know when things go downhill.» After finishing his ice cream, Axel stared at _his_ kids. «You can never know when a sunset is the last one. We can only… try to be happy with the time we have, here and now.»

Shiro let her friends go and leaned a little forward to look in Axel’s eyes.

«Axel, what about that story?» she managed to ask him before Xion put an arm in front of her to stop her from leaning further.

Axel shrugged. He would have never said it out loud…

… but he was seriously doubting _that story_.

He had believed until not so long before the “nothing” he had felt had been because of the loss of his heart.

It probably had been like that… or maybe, that familiar feeling had been the same he had felt when his father and mother had never come home.

He _did_ feel something in that moment. Relief, for taking the kids home, to safety. Fear, for what was surely about to happen the following day – knowing Saïx, if he had not managed to stage a deadly accident that day, he would have found some way to make it the following one.

Worry for what would have happened to Shiro, who according to the Assassins’ reports now – unknowingly – shot the “dying lightbulb” from her hand every night.

Probably, the little one had started feeling threatened without really being conscious about it.

He couldn’t say for how long the four of them remained sitting on the top of the tower, despite the clock under their feet and the bells ringing every quarter of hour. He had lost the count and he did not give a damn.

When they headed back to the Castle, Shiro was clutching Roxas’s and Xion’s hands and gave no sign of letting them go in their rooms.

When Axel finally shook off Saïx and his accusation of “meddling again” and went to check on them, he found the three of them curled up like kittens in Shiro’s bed, lost in dream world after the tiring day.

“ _… What a game, guuuys! Cloud’s the MVP!...”_

_“Zack, come on, you’re making me blush…”_

_“Uhm, Lea… you’re my best friend and I love you… but are you sure the couch won’t just collapse?...”_

_“… KAIRI! That was the last cookie! If I only catch you, I’ll lift you up by your feet, got it memorized?...”_

A lifetime before, Grandma had found them all piled up on her old squeaky couch, Cloud still wearing his baseball uniform, Lea, Isa and Zack with their faces covered in paint and cookie crumbs, at peace with the world, before things went down the worst possible way.

He took a hand to his mouth and bit his own fist, trying to hold back the lump in his throat, even if probably even this time tears wouldn’t come.

It was happening again, _and there was nothing he could do_.

* * *

DAY 353

«And now we're left with the one we can't use…»

«Roxas isn’t useless, quit it!»

Before Roxas could reply, Shiro marched between him and Saïx and glared at him. She seemed as confused as he was, but that was normal, considering she was never told anything.

Now the question was why Xion, who had left that morning with Axel and Xigbar, wasn’t in the room with them.

«Your opinion wasn’t requested.» Saïx looked down on Shiro.

It was then Shiro seemed to notice something was very wrong.

«Where’s Xion?» She asked, clenching a fist. Roxas tried his best to calm her down – maybe if he could have explained her what was happening…

«Axel said she ran off…» he answered sadly.

He tried to take her hand, but Shiro took it out of his reach. Roxas had always asked himself what differentiated him from Somebodies, and in that moment he thought he had the answer. The girl was visibly _shaking_ , both her hands clenched into fists and her knees bent, in a stance that someone could have predicted as aggression or defense.

«I bet it’s your doing!» The girl addressed Saïx. «You and that ugly wharf rat! Are you happy now? She’s gone, wasn’t this what you wanted?»

Her eyes were glassy, her voice was broken and her body was leaning forward, with her face stained by tears.

«You made me lose a friend!» she added, her lower lip trembling.

Roxas had never seen Saïx as angry as in that moment – if angry was the word. If gazes could kill, he could have probably pulverized both him and Shiro.

«Number XIV was _not_ your friend.» He snarled. «It never was a living being to begin with. It’s a _dummy_. _FAKE_ , like that filthy Moogle doll you always carry around!»

A _dummy_? _Fake_?

What the…

Roxas was about to say something, but in front of him Shiro _sprung_. She raised her left hand and leapt towards Saïx with her right fist clenched.

The boy was barely fast enough to catch her, clutching her shoulders with his arms, and the fist Shiro had been loading for Saïx almost grazed his face.

 _Fake… a dummy…_ it couldn’t be… _but then why was Shiro so angry_?

Not even Axel and Xigbar seemed to be about to intervene – the former was petrified on the spot, dumbfounded, the latter had his disfigured face contorted in a sneer and _was laughing_.

Probably, Xigbar’s laugh caused something. A moment before, the one-eyed wretch was staring at Shiro and cackling. A moment after, Shiro had emitted a flash of light from her right hand, and some of Xigbar’s hair caught fire.

«What are you waiting for, you _dullard_?» Xigbar yelled at Axel, trying to put out his burning hair with his hands. «Lock her in her room!»

Axel grabbed Shiro by the wrist, but she didn’t stop struggling, her gaze on Saïx, tears still streaming down her face.

« _I HATE YOU!_ »

_Roxas’s diary_

_Axel let Xion leave the Organization. Like he wanted her to go._

_She's a puppet? A mirror that reflects me?_

_He's talking nonsense._

_I CAN'T TRUST HIM ANYMORE._

* * *

DAY 355

Roxas finally forced himself to slow down. He had been running ever since he had crossed the doors of the Castle. He was _out_. Out.

He rubbed his face with one of his sleeves. Something screamed in his mind to turn, to get back there, save Shiro… but no way, he would have only put her into danger. She wasn’t able to defend herself, and if he had to run, he had to be quick.

«Your mind’s made up?»

Axel’s familiar voice made Roxas stop in his tracks.

«Why did the Keyblade choose me? I have to know.» he replied, hardly turning his head to look at him.

Axel’s expression was desperate.

«You can't turn on the Organization! You get on their bad side, and they'll destroy you!»

It was then Roxas decided to turn his back on him again. He could no longer stand looking at his face.

«There’s only _Somebody_ who’d miss me, and this is not her place.»

He hoped Shiro would be fine. If Axel had really raised her ever since she was “so tiny she barely reached his knee”, there was _a chance_ she could have trusted him.

«Take care of her.»

He kept walking, without ever turning back.

* * *

DAY 357

It had been two days since Roxas was gone.

Shiro had not even had the chance to say goodbye – after what she had done to Xigbar’s hair, she had been confined to her room for three days, literally _under lock and key_.

She had not needed her conscience to understand they had tried to draw out her Keyblade with that chastisement – if she had managed to set Xigbar on fire, they had probably thought she was about to do _else_.

In the end, it had been Axel who had opened the door, the evening before. He had hugged her and admitted to her he had done something he would have never really wanted to – something he had been imposed to do.

He had been wounded – there were slashes on his coat. And maybe, now Roxas and Xion were gone, he would have become “as responsive as a rock” again.

_Shadows and Bandits and a Large Body’s head… if I break my promise I’ll die ‘til I’m dead._

But Shiro felt even worse, seeing Axel in his bad place again. Especially after what she had told Saïx – or worse, now that Saïx showed no sign of going back to the man he had been once.

Axel had to know _his sister maybe was still alive_.

«Axel, there’s something I have to tell you.»

Shiro stopped in the doorway of the room. Axel was lying on his bed, with a new coat covering the wounds of the previous day, but he raised his head when he saw her.

«Hey, ‘Shroom. What’s up, are you feeling alone?» He sat up. He was grinning, but Shiro was too used to see him faking it to believe it was a real smile.

«I overheard you two months ago. When you were talking to Saïx and he told you your sister was…»

«Oh.» Axel hung down his head. «You knew, then. About Xion…»

«Yeah, and I don’t believe that. She’s as real as you and me.» Shiro sat on the bed next to Axel. «Actually… she found out something, talking to Riku. Something she wanted you to know. She told me to wait until the right moment, but I can’t, not now.»

Axel sighed.

«If she told you to wait, maybe you should.» He caressed gently her hair.

«But, Axel…»

_You’re my best friends. Never forget. That’s the truth._

She was about to speak, but… what was she saying again?

Shiro felt as if she had just lost her train of thought. _Badly_.

«But what, ‘Shroom?» Axel asked her, puzzled. «What were we talking about?»

«I… don’t… know…»

She felt as if she had forgotten something important, or as if something bad had happened.

It probably _had_ , because a Dusk swayed in the room and hissed in its unintelligible speech that they were summoned in the Round Room.

 _Both of them_.

«This can only mean one thing.» Axel grumbled and stood up. His face looked grim, as if he was expecting something ugly to happen.

«What?» Shiro didn’t understand. It was the first time she was admitted in that room, and she hardly could understand what could be ugly about that piece of news.

«They will send the two of us to get Roxas.»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s a Lord of the Rings reference in the chapter. Have you spotted it?  
> Also, yeah, those lyrics Xion ends up singing… Someday has a rather different text in Italian and English, but I managed to give them meaning in both versions of the story. In the Italian story, Xion says something about having feelings, and being able to win and lose, while here… well, I decided to pick the lyrics about “standing in the sun” and “wishing upon the moon” for the Sea Salt trio’s two backgrounds, Twilight Town and The World that Never Was with the Kingdom Hearts moon.  
> And yeah, Shiro was about to say it and SHE FORGOT because she forgot Xion. Please, don’t hate us. It gets better, promise. That chapter was the worst even as writers and translator.  
> Only one chapter left before Part 2 begins… and I hope it’s as great as we imagine it!


	10. Someday

«One more time, Shiro. What’s your job?» Axel put the Struggle bat in Shiro’s hands.

«I get to the finals, cross bats with Roxas and tell him he’s gotta come home. Right?» She nodded.

Axel smiled – a fake smile, but it was still better than seeing him sulking in his room.

«Good job, ‘Shroom!»

Roxas was on the other side of the sandlot, discussing something with three kids his age. Shiro had already seen them in the _real_ Twilight Town, and if she could recall, their names were Pence, Hayner, and Olette, and Pence looked like a movie character.

It was difficult to believe everything around her, _everyone around her_ but Axel and Roxas, were fake like Mr. Kupo, who was safely stored in her backpack along with her diary. Yet the Twilight town around her had been entirely built within a computer.

«Now, that Seifer guy you’re against, he may look like he’s rough and tough, but don’t forget it’s all a _simulation_.» Axel put his hands on her shoulders, smirking again. «A bug or two in his code and he’ll be out like a light as soon as you hit his head. It’s Roxas you have to watch out for. You talk to him, you take his hand, and we leave.»

«As soon as time stops?»

«As soon as time stops.» Axel removed one of his hands, then gently pushed her forward with the other.

On the elevated ring, the owner of the armor shop, Biggs, had started announcing the contest.

«Hey, now. It's time to introduce today's combatants! The four troublemakers who struggled their way through the preliminaries!»

Shiro smirked. She wasn’t exactly what could be called a troublemaker, but if she was there for a reason, she couldn’t care less.

«Regular finalist and head of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee… Seifer!»

The hand of the announcer pointed towards the biggest of the four competitors, a muscular boy with a black beanie and looking rather mean. Shiro felt somewhat afraid of him, but what Axel had told her about the simulation gave her a little reassurance.

«The surprise of the year… she may not have hit puberty, but she _can_ land some nasty blows… let’s hear it for Shiro!»

A tepid applause was heard in the square, and the other three strugglers looked at her corner. Instinctively, Shiro tried to spot Axel in the crowd, but he was gone. There only was her backpack where he had stood.

The girl turned to Roxas again, but apart from a rather curious look, her old friend showed no sign of recognizing her.

«How old can she be?» Shiro heard Olette asking Pence. They almost looked worried about her.

«An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner! It's his first trip to the finals!»

In that moment, Roxas focused once more on the third challenger, Hayner. He seemed to be rather fond of the boy, by the way he looked at him.

«And Struggler number 4, who happens to be my absolute favorite customer, Roxas! So, who will win this sweltering summer Struggle?»

The announcer gestured to the four challengers to approach the scoreboard. Hayner stood on the left, Roxas next to him, and Shiro took her place between him and Seifer. Despite they were close enough to touch, Roxas hardly looked at her.

« _What’s wrong with him now?_ »

“ _I don’t know, but don’t talk to him in front of the others_ ,” her conscience admonished her.

The announcer repeated to them the rules and gave them bats and some sort of protective gear with Velcro balls attached to it. As it seemed, the purpose of the game was to knock as many balls as they could off the opponents’ gear, and if that meant _hitting_ them, Shiro was sure she could do it. After all, she had been practicing fencing with Roxas and… _practicing fencing with Roxas_ for almost a year.

The first match was Roxas versus Hayner.

The match was almost predictable: Hayner had to be a hot head, because he lost control quite often and overlooked defenses. Roxas was _quick_ knocking almost all balls off him before the ending whistle.

Shiro and Seifer were called to the ring while Roxas was helping Hayner up and the two friends started joking with each other. When Seifer passed in front of Hayner, the curly-haired boy started taunting him and asking whether he was in a rush to lose.

Shiro passed in front of Roxas, discreetly waving her hand in a greeting gesture. A grin was hinted on the boy’s face, but visibly more out of politeness.

«You gotta hope for the squirt to win, Roxas, at least you’ll have a nice challenger!» Hayner commented seizing his friend’s arm and dragging him away. «I wonder what Mr. Obtuse here’s gonna think when he gets flattened by a cute angel, though…»

«I’m gonna win, pretty boy.» Seifer venomously hissed at Hayner and Roxas. «And not even break a sweat!»

Hayner, now outside the ring along with Roxas, only giggled at the answer.

Still no reaction from Roxas.

 _Come on, Shiro_. The twelve-year-old raised her guard. _You have to beat this yahoo to talk to Roxas._

The referee whistled, and Shiro braced herself.

It couldn’t be harder than all the times she had done it with Roxas – she only had to resist for a minute.

It looked like her opponent was keen on exploiting his size to prevail – _good_ , Shiro knew what to do in such a case.

Roxas had taught her to roll away to dodge danger. To be fast enough to counter after a parry. She knocked two balls off Seifer’s garments, attached them on her own with her left hand, and then ran off, dodging the remaining attacks and parrying when she couldn’t get away.

 _Never turn your back on your opponent_.

The ending whistle seemed to never come, but when she was finally allowed to stop, _she was leading_.

«No way!» Hayner exclaimed from the benches. «She really made it!»

«She must have had a good mentor, or at least she does have a technique. She kinda seemed to have a style similar to yours, right Roxas?» Pence elbowed his friend.

In front of Shiro, Seifer seemed to be about to burst with rage. He turned on his heels and got off the ring, head held down. As he shoved people away to vanish in an alley, Shiro heard Hayner shouting: «Sure got your arse handed to ya, eh, “Leader”? And from the youngest of us!»

Shiro swung her bat in the air and mentally went through Axel’s plan. Fight as if everything was normal. Wait for the time to end. Then, _only then_ , talk to Roxas. Take him away. Act quickly. Run.

Roxas climbed on the stage and the announcer spoke.

«And now the match you’ve been waiting for: Roxas versus Shiro!»

«Don’t go easy on me, because I’m not planning to.» Shiro looked in Roxas’s eyes and gave him a challenging smile, like he used to do to her during their practice. «So, you are Roxas, right?»

Roxas did not flinch, but gave her the same grin. «I’ve seen how you flattened Seifer… I think he’ll start wearing a sack instead of his stupid beanie.»

«Let’s just say I’ve always had a good sparring partner.» Shiro gave a quick look to the audience. Silence had fallen before the starting whistle, but they were still moving. They were still looking and listening. «Still, I _am_ a little sorry for that yahoo.»

«Naaah, he had it coming.» Roxas chuckled.

He still seemed not to recognize her, at all.

At the whistle, Roxas immediately made a leftward slash, trying to hit Shiro’s right side, but she expected that. It was one of the first attacks he had taught her to dodge, and it wasn’t hard to shuffle to her left, make a step backwards and keep the bat on the side Roxas had been trying to hit.

Shiro almost let slip a smile seeing the baffled look on the boy’s face.

_Was he holding back or had he really forgotten her?_

She spun the bat in her hand and started a counter-attack. Roxas hastily raised his guard again, still looking very confused by how she had anticipated his moves.

When he got back on the offensive, though, the boy was smiling. He _was having fun_.

«You should join us after the tournament.» He proposed during their exchange of blows. «Olette would be happy to have another girl in the group!»

What was he saying? Had he really forgotten everything? Shiro wanted to tell him to stop, to quit the act, but around them the citizens of the virtual town still moved and shouted and cheered, and she could do nothing but answer a rather doubtful: «Really?»

«Well, the boys already like you.» Roxas parried and then immediately followed with a downward slash.

Shiro raised her bat to parry. It would have been nice to be part of the group, _had it only been real_. Maybe, when things would be fine again, it could have been a possibility. How would have looked like a future in which they could eat ice cream every day without missions to keep them apart, without Roxas coming home in a sorry state or in a horrible mood, or with some kind of problem to solve?

She only wanted her best friend back.

«I’d love to. You are…»

_… my best friend…_

She expected the ending whistle to sound in the tiny square. She had not counted the balls, even if she was certain Roxas had knocked several off her – she had been busier trying to talk to him than trying to effectively block all the attacks.

The whistle never came. Instead, the arena fell silent.

«Roxas…» Shiro lowered a little the bat and looked around. Where was Axel when he was needed to explain.

The boy looked around, frightened. «What’s going on? Why did everyone freeze?»

It was time. She had to tell him.

She completely lowered her sword arm – according to her conscience, to show she was trustworthy she had to use submissive body language – then she cleared her throat.

«You may not believe me, Roxas, or maybe you just don’t remember, but… you were my best friend until a couple days ago.» It was just like getting a baby tooth pulled out, but Shiro kept talking. «We went for ice cream together, and you taught me how to fence. You _are my best friend_.»

She couldn’t hold back tears anymore. She would have wanted Roxas to hug her, but instead he made two steps backwards, more confused than ever. His eyes were glassy, and he kept turning his head from Shiro to his friends frozen in the crowd.

It was then Axel finally made his entrance.

«Talk about blank with a capital “B.”» He commented walking to them from behind Roxas, his face hidden by the black hood. «You really don’t remember?»

Roxas turned on his heels, with reflexes honed by a year of experience he had no memory of.

«Not even him?» Shiro looked from Roxas to Axel.

«It’s me… Axel!» Axel lowered his hood and looked at Roxas with what could have looked like a grin, but was an expression Shiro had never really seen on him.

«Wait a sec!» Roxas made a ninety-degree turn so he could look at both Axel and Shiro. «Tell me what’s going on!»

«Roxas. You are our best friend. We lived in the same place, which is not here. That guy is Axel. A-x-e-l. He’ll ask you if you got it memorized.» Shiro made another try, even mimicking Axel’s gestures.

But Roxas seemed to have no response.

It was enough for Axel to turn serious.

«This town is his creation, right? Which means we don't have time for a Q & A.» He extended his arms, and flames burst out of his hands. «You’re coming with us, conscious or not.»

«Axel, no.» Shiro shook her head and instinctively started walking so she could stand between the two.

«Then you’ll hear the story.» Axel paid her no heed. The flames in his hands were condensing into his chakrams.

“ _Shiro, no!_ ” her conscience screamed in her head while she walked faster, her bat raised in her hands in an attempt to intercept Axel.

« _Shiro yes!_ » The girl replied without stopping.

A moment before, Axel was lunging at them, his momentum preventing him from stopping in front of Shiro.

There was a burst of light, a _dong_ of metal on metal, and Shiro fell backwards on Roxas, sending them both to the floor of the stage, the girl sitting on the boy’s lap.

But Axel had been sent backwards too.

He had not fallen, just staggered a few steps away, but he was staring, astonished, at Shiro and Roxas.

« _No… not now, dammit_!»

He was looking at Shiro’s hands. She looked at where the Nobody was gazing, and there was nothing out of the ordinary – only her bat, smelling of burnt plastic and with a gap on a side, of which the blackened edges were still smoking and sizzling.

It didn’t seem Axel was about to try again, but for good measure Shiro stood up and opened her arms wide, notwithstanding her now useless bat.

«Axel, don’t! He’s our friend!»

She expected Axel to tell her to step aside, but he stayed where he was, motionless, as if he was at a loss of what to do, for the first time since forever.

Shiro slightly turned her head to face Roxas.

«Do you believe me, _now_?» she snorted.

«You too…?» Roxas was almost as astonished as Axel was. But something seemed to have clicked in his mind, because he reached out with the hand still holding _his_ bat, and the toy was surrounded by zeroes and ones, and it turned into his Keyblade. «Before… your bat looked kinda like this.»

He made a bitter grin.

«I don’t remember you, Shiro…» He sighed. «But you remember how I move, and you stood in front of me and you have a Keyblade…»

«I don’t think that’s a Keyblade.» Shiro held up her bat, burnt and broken beyond repair.

«But…» Roxas murmured. «This is all too strange. It feels like we’re in one of Pence’s old video tapes.»

«There’s no time, kids!» Axel approached them, but Roxas raised _his own Keyblade_ at him.

«I never said I recognize you.» Roxas bared his teeth. «For what I know you could have kidnapped her.»

Axel didn’t move, but he stared at Roxas as if he had been struck by the weapon rather than his words.

It was then the air was filled with a buzzing sound, like the static of a TV set, and behind them a man clad in red appeared. Shiro immediately recognized him.

«Roxas, this man speaks nonsense!» DiZ, the old crazy guy who had tried to kidnap Shiro, bellowed at the boy.

«Run, kids, NOW!» Axel grew more frightened second by second.

Roxas stood his ground, but Shiro tried to run away. She had not even left the stage when another hooded figure, one she didn’t recognize, took her wrist in a strong grip.

«Now, if you don’t mind, _Nobody_ , we’ll take the child where she belongs.» DiZ threw at Axel an utterly disgusted look.

The air filled with static again – was it really air? – and DiZ and Axel vanished.

The square was once more filled with cheers and shouts, Roxas was holding a rubber bat again, and the one in Shiro’s hand was good as new.

The stranger was there, too, still holding her wrist.

«Let go!» Shiro shouted immediately. If he was one of DiZ’s men, he couldn’t be on her side – and Roxas would have defended her, he had to…

«Enough with the stunts, Shiro, we’re going home.» The stranger scolded her from under his hood. Despite how big he looked under the dark garments, his voice was familiar.

It wasn’t a stranger – it was _Riku_ , the boy from the castle.

«Hey! _What’s going on_?» Roxas marched towards them, pointing the bat at Riku.

«Did she bother you?» Without taking off his hood, Riku sustained Roxas’s stare and answered in a polite tone. «I’ve been looking for her all morning. I have to take her back to her mother.»

Before Roxas could say anything else, Riku apologized to the announcer, took Shiro by a shoulder and led her away to the nearest alley.

They passed under an arch and the town around them started dissolving, until it turned into an aseptic, dark room, lit only by the screens of a computer.

«So _that’s_ why they kept her there.»

DiZ, sitting in front of the computer, looked at Shiro with his only exposed eye.

«The King told me about her parents.» Riku said. «Of how they both bore Keys. If it’s true Xehanort wanted to use the Keyblade for… and he already tried to use Sora…» He hung down his head. «Shiro, I’m sorry.»

* * *

_Dammit_.

It was all Axel could think in that moment.

Operation Roxas had not just gone bad – it simply could have not gone _worse_.

Not only Roxas was totally amnesiac and had refused to follow them. He had even lost _Shiro_ , deemed by Saïx as “the best leverage they had to take him back”.

No, now Shroom had even _almost summoned her own Keyblade to defend her friend_.

Axel was almost glad Riku had gotten her – in such a situation, the Superior would have definitely changed his plans and done something to bind the girl to the Organization once and for all… _and probably even given the order to eliminate Roxas, maybe even to the very Shiro_.

When Xemnas would have known Shiro had almost summoned a Keyblade…

 _No_.

 _If_. Not when.

Axel and Roxas were the only eyewitnesses, Roxas was as good as lost, and Axel would have burnt himself to ashes before confessing it.

He wasn’t going to lose anyone else.

* * *

_Thinking of you, wherever you are._

_We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend._

_Now I will step forward to realize this wish. And who knows… starting a new journey may not be so hard,_

_or maybe it has already begun._

_There are many worlds, but they share the same sky._

_One sky, one destiny._

«Starts with an S… right, _Sora_?»

* * *

Roxas uncorked a Potion vial with his teeth, spat the cork far away and emptied the bottle in one single gulp.

It was little use for the grip squeezing his guts and the nausea that had been tormenting him since the morning, but his knees started shaking less, and the burns he had on his arms and legs started ebbing like the low tide.

He still couldn’t say _which_ had been the worst piece of news of that day, and those brief moments in which he had woken up in his bed after a night of insomnia and nightmares and had not completely recognized his own appearance should have been the foreboding of how everything had collapsed around him.

Not being seen, or heard, by the three people who were all his world, finding out that he had never been in that photograph… Axel, who according to Naminé and Shiro had been his best friend, _trying to kill him, again and again_ , by the orders of that _cursed_ Organization XIII from which, as it seemed, he had resigned by running away.

He did not even remember why.

Probably, he told himself searching through his recently reacquire memories, it had been because Shiro – _Shiro!_ He had taught her _himself_ to fight, that explained why she knew his every move! – had been _kidnapped_ by the Superior Xemnas who kept pretending to be her father.

He remembered the taste of ice cream, a sunny afternoon sitting between Shiro and Axel, and his plans to run away, to look for the girl’s real parents.

That attempt had surely gone horribly wrong.

The hardest hit, though, had been Naminé’s revelation.

“ _Roxas, Nobodies like us are only half a person._ ”

He had already heard the word Nobody. DiZ had used it to insult Axel a few days before, but Roxas had not imagined it had actually meant something more.

He _happened_ to be a Nobody too. Other memories, flown back to his mind as he had stood in front of the computer who had forcefully removed them, had reminded him that Nobodies – folks like him – were shadows left behind by the corruption of people, beings incapable of feeling.

So why were his knees shaking? Why was he worried for Shiro’s whereabouts, for what could have happened to her? Why did he _feel_ his guts turning to mush, why were his eyes filled with tears and why did he want to scream?

Why was he _so afraid of fading away_?

Until a few minutes before, Roxas had hoped Axel would take him aside, squeeze him in a hug, and tell him everything would be okay.

A part of him kept saying that was what a friend would do.

Another, disillusioned and disgusted, wanted to show no trust.

It had ended with the same friend Roxas had hoped would have dried his tears, who instead had raised his own weapons on him, and pushed Roxas to do the same, to fight and defeat him for something he knew in the bottom of his heart – _if_ _he had one_ – had no rhyme or reason.

He found another Potion in his pockets, uncorked it and drank. If DiZ really wanted to knock him off dead, Roxas would have fought tooth and nail until the end. The last red stains on his limbs faded into his skin.

It was time.

He cross the metallic room and laid a hand on the sliding door, that opened revealing a corridor with glass pods that reached the ceiling on the left side of the wall.

The room flickered for a moment, walls and floors distorted by the static, and someone appeared in the middle.

Roxas reached out for his Keyblade, but a few steps away from him, Shiro shrugged, clenched her fists, raised her head and said: «Hi…»

Almost all the weight pressing on Roxas’s stomach seemed to fade. Shiro was there! She was fine!

«Shiro!»

He ran to her, stopping only when he had a hand on her shoulder. He would have hugged her, but the fear of being attacked again after Axel was too strong.

«Roxas!» Shiro did not seem to agree, because she raised her arms and squeezed him in an embrace. «You big blockhead! I thought I lost you!»

«I’m sorry, Shiro… I’m so sorry…» Roxas would have wanted to say more, but he found he couldn’t. He could only imagine how much he had hurt her during the tournament… the things he had told her… the _stupid_ reaction he had had…

«I’m fine, no need to say sorry.» Shiro let him go and grinned. «I should apologize instead, I messed up big time.» She sniffed.

«It’s okay.» Roxas took her hands and took a breath. «What matters now is that you’re safe. Because you are, aren’t you?»

Shiro nodded.

«That DiZ guy is mad like a March Moogle. All of his computers and stuff and instead of going after skilled folks like your parents, he went and wasted a year trying to wake up a self-taught teen.» Roxas rolled his eyes. «Shiro, just promise me you’ll be good.»

«Can’t you just tell him? We can still find a way…» Shiro’s eyes were filling with tears. «I… don’t want you to vanish. I… I’m gonna miss you!»

Roxas stepped backwards and let Shiro’s hands go.

«I don’t know when we’ll meet again, Shiro, but I’ll do whatever it takes to come back.» He tried to maintain a normal tone, but a lump in his throat distorted his voice. «Keep waiting. Keep an eye on that Sora dummy for me. And please… _be happy_.»

He passed Shiro and walked slowly to the last door.

«Sora…» He heard Shiro mumbling. «Roxas, I’ll find my Mom, I promise! And when I find her we’ll both come after you! I promise, you blockhead! I promise!»

* * *

The transponder emitted a beam of light and Shiro got out, tears streaming down her face and sobbing loudly.

Riku cautiously turned off the computer and walked to her, letting the child cry on him.

It was almost all over, but the young man couldn’t even think about being happy.

Sora was about to wake up, but he’d never see him again. And Shiro had lost someone close to her. _Somebody_.

Riku had carried out DiZ’s plans and orders to the letter, but despite the darkness getting to him, he had not had the heart of carrying out the final order – disposing of the captives.

Naminé and Axel reminded him too much of someone important – too much of Kairi – to permit him to raise Soul Eater on them. And they did not deserve to die, either.

Sora would have woken up any minute, and that half-wrecked old mansion was the last place in which Riku wanted to stay.

«Hey, Shiro,» he asked the girl. «What about ice cream?»

Ten minutes later they were standing at the ice cream stand line, behind two of the three Twilight Town kids whose digital copies DiZ had deemed as Roxas’s friends in the illusionary city.

«Pence is late.» the blond boy was telling the girl.

«We still have to get one for him, or he’ll never forgive us…» the girl replied.

Almost answering their argument, the missing boy crossed the square, running and panting, but grinning ear to ear.

«GUYS!» he shouted, waving a piece of paper and running to them.

«Whoa, Pence, what’s with the running? Have you taken a leaf from your brother’s book?» the other boy chuckled.

«Hayner, I don’t think that’s a _leaf_ ,» the girl commented.

Pence stopped in front of his friends, waving the piece of paper like a flag.

«It’s his. My brother’s. He says they will be back home in weeks!» He looked like he couldn’t be happier. «He says he can’t wait to see us, and he wants to see how good I became at taking pictures!»

Riku waited for his turn and paid for two popsicles, then he took Shiro’s hand and they walked away. The girl squeezed his hand and tried to led him in a direction.

«Come, I know a place!»

Riku followed her to the station square, up the stairs of the clock tower to the balcony over the clock. Shiro sat on the balcony, unwrapped her ice cream and started eating it.

«We always came here,» she explained.

That explained _why_ DiZ had sent the virtual party to have their snacks there in the previous days – it was a memory he had not been able to fully extirpate from Roxas, so he had simply tried to keep his habit.

«I don’t get it.» Shiro confessed as they ate. «Roxas has always been a good boy. And Axel, he was his best friend. I know he’s suffering, he lost his little sister long ago. Why do good people sometimes get used for bad reasons?»

«You said, Shiro. They are _used_.» Riku murmured. «And they were _used_ to provoke further hurt. I’ve risked losing friends for this story. I’ve risked losing people I love. I only wish… I didn’t have to do all this.»

«So what now?»

Shiro’s gaze was lost beyond the horizon. Riku tried to imagine how could she be feeling. For the first time, she was alone. Without any guardian… and yet for the first time without a prison and wardens.

She would have _needed_ someone, but Riku didn’t feel like he could be that person, not in that moment.

There were still enemies to fight, and he didn’t feel like he could become someone’s friend or mentor.

«The Organization has lost a battle. Not the war. They’ll try to get back at us somehow, and you can’t stay here. In a while, my friend Sora will be at the station…»

«Sora the dummy?» Shiro answered almost immediately.

Riku had to hold himself back not to slap his own forehead. Either someone had described him that way to Shiro, or the girl was quite snarky. In any case, that was both legitimate and _fun_.

«He can be kind of a dummy sometimes.» He forced himself to smile, then he took a small purse out of a pocket. «Give him this munny and leave with him and his companions. Catch the train leaving from Platform Zero.»

«Platfrom Zero?» Shiro seemed rather confused. «No one ever got on that… people say that it’s kind of a ghost train…»

«I know where it takes.» Riku comforted her, putting the purse in her free hand. «It’ll take you to a powerful sorcerer, a person you can trust. You’re free now, Shiro. Your journey begins now.»

For how relieved she looked, Shiro was still staring at Riku.

«You said Sora’s your friend. Don’t you wanna see him? _You can_.»

Riku shook his head. He didn’t know how to explain Shiro what had happened, but he could find an excuse.

«I have a job to do… the Organization…»

«And then what? _He’s your friend_.»

Riku lowered his head. His intention was to vanish, maybe forever… that, _if_ he survived the battle.

But Shiro seemed to want an answer…

… and maybe there was something he could do.

«If Xemnas kidnapped you, probably he’ll know what happened to your parents.» Riku straightened his back. «Or maybe His Majesty knows something. In any case, I got into this story and I’m going to solve the case. I promise you… when the Organization is no longer a threat, I’ll go searching for your mom and dad myself.»

« _Really?_ » Shiro clung to his arm, joy visible on her face.

Riku sighed, but he nodded. He had forged his own chains. But thinking of a purpose, of somewhere to go when everything would be over, seemed to lift a weight off his heart.

He still remembered Sora’s song from ten years before. He remembered those words that could have been a declaration of hope for a better day, but even the acceptance that, with all its problems and constant change, all its lights and shadows, life had to be taken as it was.

 _‘Til then, on days when the sun is gone, we’ll hang on, wish upon the moon_ …

The night was about to end.

«Is this a promise, Riku?» Shiro held out her hand for him to shake it.

«You have my…» Riku extended his hand, but he couldn’t finish the sentence. His fingers twitched, then relaxed, and his palm emitted a flash of light.

He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, his hand was holding the familiar weight of a weapon. He almost recognized Soul Eater, the sword Maleficent had bestowed upon him, but the blade was longer and straighter, the hilt was elliptical and composed of both a black and a white wing, and another, smaller, white wing, had literally blossomed near the point of the sword.

«Sweet mother of monkey milk...» Shiro had a start. «Riku, that’s a…»

 _A Keyblade_? Only now?

The warrior on the island came to Riku’s mind. The man who _had to be Shiro’s father_. His motivation to see the worlds, the secret bequeathing.

Maybe _that_ was the moment Terra had been waiting for. Maybe he finally understood.

Riku wanted to bite his lip not to cry, but luckily Shiro could not see his face under the hood.

The Keyblade maybe had decided that, from that moment on, he was finally worthy, but that story was far from over.

_I walk the Way to the Dawn._

_My Journey begins NOW._

* * *

_Dear Pence,_

_I think our great adventure might be almost over._

_Right now the place we’re in is called New York, but people also call it the Big Apple or The City That Never Sleeps. The world we’re in hasn’t had a monster invasion – at least not much, and we’ve met a rather STRANGE guy who keeps them at bay along with two apprentices of his._

_(He says they’re called Heartless, by the way.)_

_A few weeks’ time and we might be home again, and by then I want to see all the pictures you took. Mom, Dad, your friends, all the ways Twilight Town has changed while we were away… everything._

_Love You._

_Your big brother_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sora opens his eyes after sleeping for a year, and suddenly finds out things are not the same.  
> Riku embraces his new purpose and mission, looking at them not to see himself.  
> A Nobody looks in the eyes of his victim, and finds the answers to a tragedy of a lifetime before.  
> A sorceress from a city that never sleeps meets meets a boy from the worlds nearest to darkness, and the spark between their hearts echoes a life they never lived.  
> Journeys begin, continue, and finish, or maybe they are nothing but milestones of one, great adventure.  
> Starting a new journey may not be so hard. 
> 
> The Story Continues...
> 
> The Journey.


End file.
